The Hardships of Family
by IAreGandalf
Summary: AU: Harry has a family, parents, a little BWL-brother and an adorable sister. Neglected by his parents and having to survive on his own since he was 4. Luckily he got Sirius. He is a great wizard and sets out to change the Wizard world. How will his life turn out with all the different hardships. Definitely not your usual wrong BWL-story. Takes a turn at chapter 5!
1. Chapter 1

**AN: **Hi! Here is the start of my new story. It is another one of those Harry has a brother who is the boy who lived-story that a lot of people get the urge to write. I hope you like it!

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**The Hardships of Family**

Harry Potter was lying on his back on his new broom, a Nimbus 2000, and watching the clear blue sky with the occasional thin cloud. It had been a birthday present from his godfather, his only birthday present in fact since his parents hadn't even noticed he had a birthday. All their focus had been on his little spoiled brother David, The-Boy-Who-Lived and their oldest was all but forgotten. It had been that way ever since the Dark Lord Voldemort had tried to kill his brother and somehow gotten destroyed himself in the process on Halloween ten years ago David had been celebrated as The-Boy-Who-Lived, savior of the wizard world and pride of the Potters. Harry had also been in the room but he had only been four at the time and he couldn't remember it. Apparently, Dumbledore had known who the wizard world's savior was by the lightning bolt scar on David's forehead. Since, Harry had been forced to take care of himself and been neglected by his parents as all their focus was on David until they got a daughter, Désirée. Harry was happy that Daisy wasn't neglected as he was but it also saddened him. It showed that his parents were capable of dividing their attention from The-Boy-Who-Lived but still they neglected Harry.

Harry thought that he had gotten over it but it still hurt to not be noticed by your parents. The only one who had remembered him aside from Sirius was his adorable little sister Désirée and she had showered him in hugs and sloppy kisses as well as drawn a picture of him flying on his broom since she was not old enough to buy a present, nor did he ever expect her to. She would always be his cute little sister and the only one in his family that he actually cared about.

Cruising in the sky Harry thought about his life. He never felt as alive as he did when he was flying and he was yearning for his fourth year at Hogwarts so that he could go back and play Quidditch once again.

He was often asked why he was a chaser and if he didn't want to be a seeker instead. There has always been this craze about seekers but Harry didn't understand it. The position seeker was not a team position. All the other positions, chaser, keeper and beater required teamwork but the seeker was barely a part of the game. That was the weakness of Quidditch. No matter how bad a team was, if they had a good enough seeker they could win nearly every game. The seeker earned 150 points for catching the snitch which, in Harry's opinion, was far too much for a far too easy job. If Harry had it his way the position seeker in Quidditch would be removed and Quidditch would be played more like the muggle game of football with a time limit. It would make for a much more interesting game. The seekers could have their own sport, chasing that lame little ball. Nevertheless, Harry knew that trying to remove the seeker position would require a lot of work as well as meet a lot of opposition so he couldn't really be bothered. Instead he would just show everybody that he would win every game without depending on the seeker of his team.

He turned around on his broom and soared smoothly to his home, if he could call it that. His true home ever since he was eleven had been Hogwarts. Either way he landed outside the dining room. When he peered in through the window he saw his whole family sitting there and eating, the last family dinner before David went to Hogwarts for his first time. A plate had not been laid out for Harry, nor did he expect one to. His father, James, was gesturing heavily with his arms and David was trying, in vain, to contain his laughter. It was, in short, a glance into the life of a perfect family, almost.

Harry shrugged and went in through the kitchen door and slammed it behind him, not bothering to hide his coming from his family. He then proceeded to cook himself an easy meal of eggs and bacon. The noise had interrupted the family's dinner but after a moment of silence they quickly returned to their moment of a jolly good time.

A little pissed, Harry took his plate with him and walked through the diner up to his room, ignoring and getting ignored as he passed the diner. Only Daisy looked at him with her big hazel eyes as he walked past but she didn't say anything.

Once inside his room he flicked his hand and the door closed behind him. He ate quickly and then got to bed, not caring how early it was. Tomorrow he would finally go back to Hogwarts where he had a life. Where he felt home.

.

Harry woke with a groan. Somehow, his little sister had gotten into his room despite him locking it with magic yesterday and now she was jumping on him. She had beautiful scarlet hair and hazel eyes big as teacups. Her waking him up by jumping on him hadn't been so bad before, when she was smaller, but now she was eight and growing rapidly. He responded to her jumping by smiling and sitting up. Then he grabbed her under the arms and lifted her off the bed, much to her delight.

"Harry! Harry! We are going to King's Cross in an hour! Let's go!" She squealed.

She saw how his smile fell but he instantly put it on again, although a little more strained.

"Alright, alright. Could you leave so I could get dressed?"

Nodding, she skipped out the door and called to David who was busy packing his trunk by the sounds of it. Harry, having packed his trunk weeks ago after Sirius had taken him to Diagon Alley on his birthday was already finished. He went down to eat some breakfast, once again, eggs and bacon. Although he had basically taken care of himself since he was four and could cook quite a variety of dishes it wasn't the most important thing on his mind.

After he ate he went up to his room again and waited, trying to meditate like monks he had seen in muggle movies since he had nothing to do. Once it was time to leave he heard a small knock on his door and once again Daisy entered his room.

"Aren't you coming, Harry?" She asked with wide eyes.

"I'll be right there," Harry answered. "You go first."

"Daisy, baby! We need to go or we'll be late!" Lily shouted from downstairs.

The cute little girl gave him a quick hug which he returned before skipping down to her mother.

"Mommy, what about Harry?"

Harry groaned inwardly.

"Harry?" Lily answered, confused, before James called upon them.

"Lily, what are we waiting for? Come on, let's go!"

"Right. Come now, Daisy."

"But, Harr.." and they were gone.

Harry went downstairs with his trunk and took out his mirror to call Sirius but it was unnecessary as Sirius was already there, in the kitchen.

"You ready, pup?" He asked simply, eyeing him up and down, to which Harry simply nodded and they apparated to King's Cross. Without Sirius he wasn't sure if he would have been able to get to and from Hogwarts ever since he started. It wasn't his parents who he had shown his letter from Hogwarts but it was Sirius. It was also Sirius who had taken him to Diagon Alley. During his childhood and the summers since he began school Harry had spent a lot of time at Sirius place. They never spoke of why he spent so much time with Sirius; it was more like an unspoken agreement between them and Harry knew that Sirius understood. Sirius had simply been there for him and thus he had played a big part in Harry's upbringing. Although Harry looked a lot like his father except a few features like he didn't wear glasses and his hair wasn't as tousled, his personality was much more like Sirius, playful and charming. Not that he got to show it much at home.

Once they were at King's Cross Harry hurried onto platform 9 ¾ with Sirius hot on his heels. He wanted to get on early so he could find a compartment all to himself. Despite going to bed early the evening before he was still tired. He gave Sirius a quick goodbye hug and thanks for bringing him there and climbed onto train. He found an empty compartment almost immediately and sat at the window, looking out on the station bustling with noisy people saying their goodbyes.

After a short while he witnessed a meeting he had hoped to avoid.

"Sirius!" His father exclaimed in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

Harry could see Sirius shooting a glance towards his compartment and he shrank down a little in his seat, hoping not to be seen through the window.

"I was bringing your son here so he could go to Hogwarts." Sirius hissed through clenched teeth and James almost recoiled at the venom in his friend's voice.

"David?" He asked confused, but he and Lily had brought David here.

It was like a punch straight to his heart. Harry fought the urge to not cry. He hadn't cried all summer and Merlin be damned he would not cry now, when he would soon be home and all would be well.

"No, James," Sirius began dangerously. "Your other son, Harry." As realization dawned on James face but he didn't do anything Sirius sneered and turned on his heels in disgust.

James, thinking his friend must have woken up on the bad side of the bed, shrugged and walked back to where Lily was standing with Daisy. He picked his daughter up and put her on his shoulders where she could see over all the heads. Daisy was looking around anxiously, searching for something and when she saw Harry peering out of the window she brightened considerably. She waved violently and almost fell off her father's shoulders. Harry smiled uneasily and waved back as the train started to move.

.

James was a little puzzled as he returned back to Lily and his adorable daughter. She reached up towards him with her thin arms and laughingly he lifted her up and set her on his shoulders.

"Hey, Lils. I saw Sirius here." He began to his wife.

"Oh? What was he doing here?"

"He said he dropped off Harry."

"Harry! Harry!" Daisy repeated and started waving violently, causing James to almost drop her. He figured she must have seen David.

"Harry?" Lily asked, perplexed. Daisy had talked about Harry before as well.

"Yes, you know? Our son." James said finally.

"Oh. When was the last time you saw Harry?" She said, trying to put a face to the name.

James pondered for a few moments before answering. "I don't know. I swear he has been home this summer, but I don't remember picking him up from Hogwarts…"

"Me neither," Lily agreed.

Looking sourly at her parents, Daisy added to the conversation, "Harry was home for his birthday. He got lots of hugs and kisses and a drawing from me!" She laughed at the last part because Harry had been very happy for the drawing and played with her the whole day since all the grown-ups attention had been on her brother, David.

"Birthday, when?" James and Lily asked in unison, dreading the answer.

"Same day as David!" Daisy squealed as she was brought down from her dad's shoulders, the train already far out of sight.

"Oh," her parents both said. They each wore very pained expressions as they prepared to return to their home. They had a lot of thinking to do.

.

As soon as the train was out of the station, Harry had lied down and tried to sleep. It was incredibly difficult however as the corridor outside was full of whispering. Then there was a knock on the door. Swearing silently to himself, Harry went up to open it to find three third year Gryffindor girls already in their robes.

He flashed them a smile and waited for them to speak. One of them, he believed her name was Angelina Johnson, spoke up with red-tinted cheeks. "H-hi, Mr. Potter…"

"Hi, and please, call me Harry," he interrupted.

"Hi, Harry," she tried again, blushing a little, "you see, we were wondering if… well, there weren't any empty, so…"

"You were wondering if you could sit here with me." Harry finished for her. Angelina and the other girls nodded. Harry, being extremely tired didn't really care anyway. He would be able to sleep either way. "Sure." He said with a smile and a nod and invited them in.

Once they were all inside they presented themselves. Angelina Johnson, a tanned girl with long black hair was sitting next to him. Opposite him sat Alicia Spinnet who also was tanned with brown hair to her shoulders. Harry recognized them both from Quidditch. Next to Alicia, however, was a girl he didn't recognize. Her name was Patricia Stimpson and she had short blond hair and looked like she had been inside all summer. They seemed to be a group of cheerful girls and love gossip and they started immediately, throwing the occasional nervous glance at Harry who was leaning against the window sill and doing his best to sleep.

Finally, after a while, they reached a subject Harry had rather they hadn't, the rumor that The-Boy-Who-Lived was going to Hogwarts this year.

"Isn't David Potter going to Hogwarts this year?" Patricia inquired, looking straight at Harry.

"I think so," Alicia agreed and turned to Harry nervously, "Well, Po-… Harry?"

"Yes, my little world-savior brother is starting Hogwarts this year." He sneered, his tone dripping with sarcasm. Neither of the girls seemed to have noticed though, as they began to speculate on the Boy-Who-Lived.

"Do you think he is handsome?"

"Do you think he is good at Quidditch?"

There was a sneer coming from Harry's left side at this. "If he is anything like Harry he should be more than good."

"I hope he'll become a Gryffindor."

The last comment made Harry chuckle slightly under his breath. _You won't need to worry about that._

The others looked at him expectantly for a few seconds before Patricia spoke up.

"Well, you're his brother. How is he?"

This was exactly what Harry had feared. It happened when he began Hogwarts as well. First, people had been surprised that The-Boy-Who-Lived had a brother and second they had bombarded him with questions about his little miracle of a brother. Questions he had refused to answer. According to some it was because he was simply jealous of his brother's greatness and although he would never admit it, he was jealous of his brother, but not of his so called 'greatness'. After some time, he showed his excellence in his studies and on the Quidditch pitch and stopped bothering him about it but it seemed that history was about to repeat itself. Unless he put a stop to it right now.

"Who cares?" He blurted out and surprised them all with his outburst. "You will get to see how my slimy git of a brother is soon enough." Three pair of eyes stared at him with mouths gaping open and he felt a little bad for sounding like he was mad at them. "I am sorry. I have not slept very well tonight and I took it out on you lovely ladies. Now, I would like to take a nap until we reach Hogsmeade. Would you mind waking me before we get there so I have time to change?" He smiled at them and they forgave him without hesitation and then promised to wake him up in time.

The next thing Harry knew, he was asleep.

Waking up ten minutes before they reached Hogsmeade, Harry politely bade the girls to step outside while he quickly changed to his school robes.

Much to the pleasure of the girls he made some smalltalk before they reached the station. As soon as the doors opened he made his way towards the carriages.

"Oi! Harry!" Someone called from behind him.

Harry turned and couldn't stop himself from grinning. The other person also wore a big grin on his face. They walked towards each other and hugged.

"It's been a long time, Archie." Harry said warmly to his friend. Archibald Mimosa and Harry met in their first year and ever since they realized they shared a love for the Chaser position in Quidditch they had been nearly inseparable. Also, an important note, Archie hates his name and will jinx anyone who doesn't use Archie instead of it.

"Yes, why did you never answer my letters?" Archie narrowed his eyes accusatorily.

"You know I hate writing letters, Archie." Harry explained, tired of having the same argument every time. Archie simply shrugged and let it go.

"So, how was summer?"

Harry shrugged in answer. Archie knew about his situation and it was not the right time to talk about it as they picked a carriage which they coincidentally shared with the same girls Harry had been sharing his compartment with.

During the ride Archie flirted outrageously with the girls, much to both theirs and Harry's amusement. Harry, on the other hand sat quietly on the edge and peering out into the forest, oblivious to the glances the girls were sending. Archie noticed them and smiled as he tried even harder to divert their attention from Harry.

Harry could barely wait to get to the feast. His whole body was tense and full of energy. He wanted to jump out of the slow carriage and run to the castle but that wouldn't do. He stopped in his thinking. Why wouldn't that do? It wasn't like there were any rules against it, not that he knew of anyway. And so Harry Potter made up his mind. He stood up quickly, surprising the other residents of his carriage.

"What're you doing, Harry?" Archie asked of his friend, though he had an idea as he saw the glint in Harry's eyes.

"See you at the feast Archie," he apologized and then made a grandiose bow to the girls. "My ladies, I hope I will have the pleasure of seeing you in the halls Hogwarts." He took the hand of the girl closest to him, Angelina, and kissed her hand causing her to blush furiously. Then he stood straight again and before anyone was the wiser he leapt off the carriage, landing midstep and immediately took off running towards the castle.

He could hear the people calling out to him from the carriages as he passed them but he ignored it. He was so close to finally being home where he belonged and nothing would stop him from getting there faster.

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**AN: **I hope you liked and don't hesitate to review! The chapters for this one will be really slow but after May they will come out pretty smoothly.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN:** Here is the next chapter! I hope you will enjoy!

Btw, Daisy is short for Désirée in case anyone was wondering.

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Harry was, of course, the first of the students to arrive in the Great Hall of Hogwarts. Once he entered, he was met with more than a little surprise. The teachers were sitting at their table and the four Heads of House were seemingly having a heated discussion while the rest of the staff, including Dumbledore, watched in amusement. They were all startled into silence by Harry coming galloping through the Great Hall entrance.

"Mr. Potter!" McGonagall exclaimed and she stood up to approach him. She did a quick tempus-charm to check the time, causing her eyes to widen slightly. "You are not expected to be here for another thirty minutes! What brought you here so early?"

"I ran," he stated simply while wiping his brow. He was pleased to notice that he wasn't particularly out of breath nor sweaty, a fact that specifically Madam Hooch seemed to have noticed. It meant that he would probably not smell that much and it would certainly not be more than the food would be able to conceal. Either way, he would take a thorough shower later tonight.

"You ran from Hogsmeade Station and all the way here, arriving thirty minutes before the carriages and you are barely sweating?" Flitwick asked, sounding impressed. He had also left his seat to approach the young man.

In response Harry shrugged, "I am well-trained." There wasn't much to say. The teachers should know to expect things like this by now but they still seemed to manage to be surprised whenever Harry did something spontaneous sporting his physical, or other, abilities. He did, however, not miss the young Arithmancy Professor Septima Vector eyeing him up appraisingly as he stood there calmly. He shot her a confident smile to show it and she quickly averted her gaze elsewhere.

McGonagall, seemingly observing the silent exchange, shook her head slightly. She then realized that they had wasted precious time. "Mr. Potter. I seem to have forgotten the Sorting Hat in the Headmaster's office and there is little time until the students arrive." She didn't mention that were it not for the argument, she would have already gone and retrieved it by now. "Might I ask you to make use of that physique of yours and retrieve it for us? The password to the Headmaster's office is 'Lemon Drop'."

It was phrased as a question but Harry knew better. She had already told him the password, which really wouldn't have been too hard to figure out knowing Dumbledore's weakness for the sweets. Thus she expected him to do as asked.

"Of course, Professor," he replied sweetly. "Might I add that you look excellent in that robe of yours? Is it new?" And without waiting for an answer he was off, making use of 'that physique of his' as McGonagall so eloquently put it.

Left behind was McGonagall who looked after him thoughtfully. If one looked really closely one would notice her cheeks had grown slightly rosy.

Flitwick grinned up at her teasingly as they returned to their table. "Isn't someone wishing a certain Mr. Potter was in Gryffindor?"

In response she rolled her eyes and swatted at him playfully. Harry Potter had been an excellent student in almost all areas, raking in points for his House and that is not even mentioning his skill on the Pitch. It was seldom that one got to witness such flying from a student. He was charismatic, charming, intelligent, resourceful, cunning and hardworking, a natural leader. She would be lying if she didn't wish for him to be in Gryffindor. In fact, it was a wonder the Sorting Hat had been able to place him at all.

She was finally brought out of her musings as suddenly the rest of the students barged in through the entrance of the Great Hall. They were a little earlier than usual. Perhaps they had been inspired on by Mr. Potter's hurry to arrive early and encouraged the carriages to go faster. There was still some time for the first years to arrive though. With that in mind, McGonagall excused herself from the staff table and went to wait for the new students of Hogwarts.

.

Right after rounding a corner Harry stopped his jogging and walked instead at a normal pace towards the Old Coots office. It was his brother's sorting and he didn't really care if the arrogant git was left waiting for a while. It was unfortunate that many others would be affected as Harry didn't mean them any ill but Harry believed they would get over it.

As he neared the Headmaster's office he thought about the man, Dumbledore, who had been uncharacteristically quiet when Harry had entered the Great Hall earlier. He held a sort of grudging respect for the old man. He resented the attention the old man gave to his little brother while he was barely acknowledged at all until he had excelled in practically every subject. Only then did he show any interest in Harry although it was careful and treading as he seemed to be aware of Harry's situation, as he should be. After all, it was due to Dumbledore proclaiming his brother the savior of the wizarding world that had caused Harry to practically be shunned by his parents. Why would he the one to have the last word about it anyway? Nobody even thought to ask the four year old boy who remembered the event clearly. All the same, Harry could not deny that Dumbledore was an impressive man. He was the defeater of Grindelwald and one of the greatest wizards of their age.

Finally Harry reached the gargoyle guarding the office and spoke the password. The gargoyle jumped aside and Harry stepped onto the highest step as the stair curled its way upwards. Once inside the office he immediately ventured over to the phoenix, Fawkes, and started petting it softly. It trilled a calming melody as he looked around the office for the hat.

"Mr. Potter. What a pleasure!"

Harry turned around quickly and saw the hat perched upon a shelf, seemingly looking down at him.

"Hello old hat."

"As cheeky as ever, I see." The hat acknowledged him with a quiet chuckle. "I suppose you were sent to get me?" Harry nodded slightly and returned to petting Fawkes. "Well, what are you waiting for? We'll be late at this rate!"

With a sigh, Harry reached out with his hand that was not occupied with petting Fawkes and motioned as if to taunt the hat towards him. The hat, thinking that Harry meant to be funny, was about to make a snide remark about Harry having to come and pick him up but instead the only sound that escaped it was a startled grunt as it slowly floated over to Harry and settled comfortably on the boy's head. Much to its displeasure, Fawkes let out a trill that sounded suspiciously much like laughter, if a phoenix could laugh that is.

Just before the hat landed upon his head, Harry wondered if he could shut the hat out of his head with his Occlumency. The results were bitterly disappointing. Harry was fairly proud of his mind shields but the hat didn't find a loophole to creep through, nor did it destroy his walls through sheer force. It simply behaved as if the walls were nonexistent and started to communicate inside Harry's mind directly, but Harry knew they were not. He could _feel_ them protecting his mind. But the hat behaved as if they weren't there and didn't bring up the subject of Harry trying to shut it out so Harry didn't either. Harry, though, thought he sensed some sort of amusement from the hat.

"_So, are you satisfied with where you sorted me?" _Harry asked the hat mentally.

"_Ah, you seem to have misunderstood me,"_ the hat answered and they begun a mental conversation as they made their way back to the Great Hall. _"I do not place students in the houses for my own satisfaction, but for theirs."_

"_Oh, Really?"_

"_Indeed,"_ the hat chuckled slightly at the skepticism in the boy's mental tone. _"While true that mainly the brave go to Gryffindor, the studious and great of mind are Ravenclaws, the friendly and hard working Hufflepuffs, and the cunning and ambitious Slytherin, but I would personally say that the houses they are sorted in bring out those properties more than they having them before they are sorted . I cannot see the future, I cannot know how every student will act and be treated in each respective House; I simply place the students where I believe they will feel most comfortable. There is almost no student where I wouldn't be able to sort it into any House."_

"_Huh."_

"_Huh indeed. Haven't you ever thought about how cunning the Weasley Twins are? They would definitely not be out of place in Slytherin, and their pranks would be even more devious than they are now." _Harry shuddered slightly at the thought, causing the hat to laugh out loud. He had somehow gained the respect of the twins by having their pranks backfire on them a few times. That had been possible because of their typically Gryffindor nature. If the pranks had been conducted in a true Slytherin style Harry would no doubt have a much larger problem in deflecting them. "_However,"_ the hat continued, _"they felt such a strong connection to Gryffindor because of their family history that I placed them there. There is rarely a person that doesn't sport the traits of all the houses."_

"_So it is like a 'nature vs nurture' debate then? Is the person displaying certain traits because of their inborn nature or because those traits were specifically nurtured by their environment, in this case the person's House?"_

"_That is a surprisingly good understanding of the situation, Mr. Potter. But back to your question if I feel satisfied with where I sorted you; there is another question that should be asked instead…"_

"_Am I satisfied with where you sorted me?"_

"_Precisely! That, however, only you can answer."_

Harry thought for a moment. They were now nearing the Great Hall and he could hear the low bruising of the students in the distance.

"_I think that I would say that I am. Thank you for sorting me into the House you did."_

"_No, it is I who should thank you, Mr. Potter. The students' happiness is my happiness. The founders would be sorely disappointed with me if I sorted the students on ability instead of where they are most likely to find happiness. Alas, I am not perfect and there are some students that I regret sorting where I did."_

"_Like who? Someone I know?"_

"_That is not for me to tell, Mr. Potter. But I see that we are nearing the hall, and we are quite late." _The hat added bitterly.

Harry shrugged, he was doing that fairly often he noticed. _"They'll get over it."_

With that he took off the hat and entered the Great Hall where he found McGonagall standing in front of the staff's table with the hats stool next to her. Before her stood a nervous bunch of first years having no idea what they were waiting for. It wasn't hard for Harry to locate his brother among them. The little squirt had made arrogance into an art, somehow managing to look both arrogant and nervous at the same time.

As soon as Harry entered the Great Hall all heads turned expectantly to him and silence boomed throughout the hall. McGonagall sent a glare at him that made it hard for him to not chuckle. Wondering how long they had waited he proceeded to the raised podium where McGonagall was standing and with a flourishing bow he offered her the hat and then turned to the students.

"I apologize for being late and I hope you did not have to wait too long!" Harry announced to the hall. "Perhaps we might skip the song this year so as to not delay the dinner even further?" He noticed McGonagall was about to object before he smoothly added, "It would be wrong to punish all the poor students for something that I alone did." The Transfigurations Professor pursed her lips and the whole student body held their breaths as they waited for her to explode.

"Thank you, Mr. Potter," she said through clenched teeth. "Now go and sit!"

She had spoken with the voice of true command and so Harry obeyed, jumping down from podium and smiling widely at the students and waving. Some badly hidden snickering could be heard at this but they quickly stopped as McGonagall narrowed her eyes in the direction of the noise.

Harry neared the Hufflepuff table and stopped beside a pink-haired witch in her seventh year.

"Hi, Nymphie!" He said perhaps a little too loud. The students around them gasped slightly as they turned to see the witch's reaction. Much to their amazement, and disappointment, the witch in question simply narrowed her eyes slightly.

"Harry, I suggest that you never call me that again if you place any value at all in what little brain cells you have."

Harry laughed and lifted her up in an embrace causing the onlookers to widen their eyes as the witch didn't only refrain from cursing his ears off but also let loose a warm smile. Students had been sent to the infirmary for simply saying her first name whenever she was in a bad mood, much less a nickname.

Without saying anything more he sat her down and squeezed in between her and, incidentally, his good friend Cedric.

All the while McGonagall, who had apparently complied with his proposal of skipping the hat's song, ignored him and proceeded with the sorting ceremony.

Harry, who really couldn't care less, began a conversation with his dining neighbors instead.

"So, how long did I keep you guys waiting?" He asked to no one in particular and leant back against Nymphadora Tonks as he pretended to watch the sorting ceremony. A fat boy, Harry thought his name was Crabbe, who didn't look particularly cunning, was sorted into Slytherin and it made Harry think about his conversation with the hat just moments earlier.

"About ten minutes," Tonks answered him and put her arms around him. The pair was getting more than a few glares and jealous looks from the people around them, both boys and girls, but they didn't really care.

"That wasn't so bad then," Harry commented and Cedric laughed quietly.

"I thought some of the first years were going to piss themselves out of nervousness." Cedric commented cheerfully. "It was a mean stunt."

Harry smirked slightly and shifted, making himself more comfortable in Tonks' arms.

They continued to watch the ceremony in quiet, the houses clapping each time they got a new housemate, until they reached the P's.

A soft murmur echoed through the hall with a few glances thrown at Harry who kept a passive face. Parkinson was sorted into Slytherin, a Patil sister in Ravenclaw and the other in Gryffindor, all to very minor clapping.

"Potter, David." McGonagall called out. The moment they all had been waiting for. Harry's brother walked up to the podium, looking slightly arrogant. Seeing his brother, Harry wished that he had asked for the Sorting Hat to put the little git where it thought he would feel the least comfortable. Nevertheless, it was too late now.

All he could do for now was to hope that Mommy's and Daddy's boy would not be sorted into his House. That would be a joke if he ever saw one.

Suddenly realizing that it had been quiet for quite some time Harry looked up, frowning. David Potter was still sitting on the stool, his head twitching nervously from time to time. The boy was seemingly whispering something to the hat and, at least to Harry's eye, the hat seemed to be greatly amused. Maybe it wasn't above having some fun now and then. Harry smirked.

"Gryffindor!" The hat roared out suddenly and Harry rolled his eyes as the Gryffindor table exploded with thunderous applause with the Weasley Twins shouting, 'We got Potter! We got Potter!' forgetting for a moment that there was more than one Potter present.

To Harry it was obvious that David would get sorted into Gryffindor, especially after the conversation he had with the hat earlier. The boy would simply not feel comfortable in any other House than the one both his parents were in.

After being sorted, David skipped happily to the Gryffindor table where he sat next to Percy the Perfect… cough… Prefect. Harry, not wanting to answer any questions about what he thought of his brother's sorting stood up and did the unthinkable he walked over to where his brother was sitting and dropped down on the seat beside him. Well, the unthinkable to anybody who knew him and/or his family situation. Otherwise it might not have been so weird for an older brother to approach his newly sorted brother.

.

David was shaking a lot of hands as he approached the Gryffindor table. He was bombarded with names of the people in his House. There were the Weasley twins and Percy Weasley, these were apparently the brothers of Ron who he had met on the train. Then there were Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet and Katie Bell, Gryffindor's Quidditch Chasers. Lee Jordan, Oliver Wood and numerous other names that David couldn't remember at the moment.

Suddenly the whole table went silent and looked at something on David's other side.

"Hello dear brother." A voice full of fake affection said beside him as the owner of the voice sat down.

David turned around and peered into the cold emerald eyes that belonged to his brother. The one who was disregarded to the point of nonexistence at home but apparently had quite the presence here at Hogwarts. He was, after all, able to silence a whole House by simply sitting down at its table. David did not miss the longing look in the eyes of some girls, and some guys for that matter as well.

David could not remember ever having a real conversation with his older brother and now here they were, sitting next to each other as if they had always done so. He did remember, however, that whenever Harry had tried to talk with their parents, they had simply ignored him or told him to stop trying to grab attention from David. David had, ever since he was one year old, been fed with the belief that Harry was jealous of David's fame.

"Hello?" David answered suspiciously and the two brothers initiated a whispered conversation while the sorting commenced. To anyone watching it would probably look quite lovable but they would be, oh, so wrong.

"So, are you happy that you got sorted into dad's and mom's old House, squirt?" There was quite a lot of venom in the older brother's voice.

"Don't call me squirt!" David retorted childishly. "You are just jealous that you weren't!" Suddenly Harry's face split into a feral grin that spoke volumes of the damage he was capable of. It seemed as if it was made to instill fear into David.

"Bah, you don't even know what my House is. I doubt even our parents know what House I'm in. They would take more interest in switching your diaper."

David widened his eyes slightly, ignoring the diaper-comment. It was true that he had no idea what House his brother was in and he doubted their parents did as well. He might be a Gryffindor. Or he might even be a Slytherin! That would maybe explain why the whole table turned silent when Harry walked over and sat down.

"You're not in Gryffindor, are you?" David asked, the fear a lot more evident in his voice than he would have liked.

In response Harry's feral grin widened even more, something that David didn't think possible. Finally, after the excruciatingly longest seconds in David's life, they were interrupted by the sorting finishing. Dumbledore stood up and raised his hands for silence.

"Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you."

Suddenly the plates in front of them were filled with all sorts of food but the Potter brothers didn't take any heed. Instead they were busy staring into each other's eyes, one with a dangerous grin upon his face while the other one clearly grew paler and paler. Not until it seemed as if the younger Potter would faint did the older brother break contact and flashing a dashing smile to his surroundings, a smile that was nothing like his previous grin, he took a chicken leg and left his brother to go sit between two people he clearly knew at another table, his brother following him with his gaze.

"He is sitting with his own House now." A voice said behind David. The comment nearly made him faint.

.

"James!" Lily shouted. "I found it!"

She heard footsteps and James barged into their bedroom, finding his wife sitting at the foot of the bed, tears trickling down her cheeks. On her lap was a photo album from ten to fourteen years ago. They had been searching for this ever since they came home from King's Cross station and now Lily had finally found it, in Daisy's room under the bed of all places. Désirée herself was reading a book on magic in the living room. Since both her brothers had gone to Hogwarts she was eager to join them as soon as possible.

The pictures in the album were all tagged with a date, the last one being just a few weeks after the famed Halloween where David had vanquished Voldemort.

James slid down so that he sat next to his wife with his arm around her. He nodded towards her and together they began to look through this photo album from a forgotten part of their life.

The first picture was of Lily sitting on the hospital bed with her newborn Harry in her arms. The next one was of Lily and Harry as well but this time James was also in the picture. They were both holding the weeks-old Harry and waving into the camera, broad smiles ornamenting their faces. The pictures continued on this theme with both Lily and James, and sometimes friends like Sirius, and baby Harry, who was growing steadily, all the time full of happiness. Once Harry was three he got a little brother and still the pictures were of a happy family with an extra addition. Sometimes Harry was holding his arms around his baby brother in a protective manner.

It all changed, however, on that fateful Halloween when Harry was four and his brother one. After that specific event there was still a happy family, but it had reversed to a family of three members. In almost all of them Harry could be seen peering longingly and sadly at his family from a dark corner while Lily and James were completely oblivious to him, only having eyes for David. Harry's part got smaller and smaller in each picture until in the second to last one. Here the family was in the living room and on the staircase behind them was Harry, sitting in Sirius lap. Harry had the same longing look in his eyes that had become so common in the photos and Sirius were openly glaring at them. In the last picture, Harry was nowhere to be seen.

After finally going through the album, Lily broke into large sobs. She burrowed herself into her husband's side. James himself was too stunned to react in any harsh manner, either to what he had just gone through or his wife's desperate sobbing. The only reaction that could be found from him was a single tear, trickling down his left cheek as he stared into the wall opposite him.

"He should be fourteen now." James said, calling forth a new set of tears from his wife. "He will be in his fourth year at Hogwarts. We didn't even bring him to the station. We brought David but not him. We didn't take him to Diagon Alley. Not even once. We didn't even give him a birthday present since his fourth birthday. We did all this for David and even Daisy when she arrived in our family but we ignored Harry. People think we are the perfect family, even we thought so, but we are far from it. We are the worst parents possible for any child."

Lily nodded her head violently, furious at herself and her husband for the way they had treated their eldest son.

Seemingly after an eternity, James rose from his position.

"I'll go put Daisy to bed." He said and left the room. He returned just a few minutes later. "She fell asleep downstairs, a book on her lap." Lily simply bobbed her head, preferring to remain quiet under the heartbreaking silence. Finally, it became too unbearable and so, James broke it. "We never noticed his Hogwarts Letter. We don't even know what House he is in, Lils."

Lily, having finally gathered herself, spoke for the first time in hours, her voice hoarse with love. "We need to make it up to him. We can't make it up to him, not completely after all that we have done, but we can and we _will_ try."

James nodded and they immediately set upon writing a letter to Harry. A letter that would take them two weeks to complete. A letter that would not, on its own, be able to do much but it was a start. A start to something good. They had no idea where it might lead them but they could at least take comfort in that what they were doing now was a good thing, no matter if the end result came out worse for it.

* * *

**AN:** Hi! I hope you enjoyed!  
Now, I have a question for you: What house do you think that Harry is in and why? To me, it is pretty clear but I am the author, so it should be.

Please review!


	3. Chapter 3

**AN:** Hope you have enjoyed the story so far! Here is the next chapter! I hope you will enjoy!

* * *

The table that Harry finally sat down at was, indeed, the Ravenclaw table. He plopped down on a seat next to Archie with Kayce Vick, a seventh year and their fellow chaser, on the other side. She had long black hair and had a fairly small build which she made full use of on the Quidditch pitch, sneaking past her opponents in the most surprising ways. Opposite him sat the newest asset of the team, Roger Davies, a third year and their keeper. He had short brown hair and was long for his age as well as lean, making for a perfect keeper with his far reach. He was also fairly good-looking and one of the more popular in his year. On either side of Roger sat the Ravenclaw beaters, brother and sister actually. Both had dirty blond hair to their shoulders and were sturdy of build. The sister, Dora Barber, was a seventh year while her younger brother, Daryl Barber, was a fifth year. Their similarities stopped at the hair and overall build of their body, though, Daryl had a hard and pointy face while Dora's was heart shaped with soft features. Not to mention her rather... impressive, assets. Being the siblings they were they both worked rather well together, not anywhere near how good the Weasley Twins but then again, who were? Lacking with them was their seeker and captain as this very person had graduated from Hogwarts the previous year. Not that Harry really minded. He hadn't really liked the previous captain nor did he have anything to spare for seekers, but he may very well be biased in the question.

Either way Harry spent the rest of the welcoming feast eating and chatting with his friends from the Quidditch team. They were talking and speculating about the coming Quidditch season and Roger blurted out, rather nervously, that he wouldn't let a single quaffle past him causing the rest of the team, and some of the other Ravenclaws nearby, to laugh.

There was also the topic of who would be their new captain as well as who they recruit for the seeker position although that particular question was rather subdued since they knew Harry's opinion of seekers. Merlin knows it had led to more than a few clashes between him and the previous captain. The only reason he hadn't been kicked off the team had been because of his evident skills and, with his fellow chasers, bringing the Quidditch Cup home to Ravenclaw.

"I'll put ten galleons on the new captain being Dora." Harry challenged Archie causing Dora to smile humbly and Daryl to give his sister a winning wink.

"Alright then, I'll bet on Kayce." Archie answered, sending a kiss through the air at the girl in question.

Kayce simply rolled her eyes in exasperation and they started to debate who it would become. In Harry's opinion, while both candidates certainly had enough charisma to be captain, Dora had that extra air about her that demanded, and received, respect and people listened to her. She wasn't afraid of stepping on toes and she was ruthlessly smart, always coming up with new ideas and tactics before the games. The reason why she hadn't been made captain from her fifth year was because the previous captain had been even more charismatic and a natural leader. He had been an expert in bringing forth the best in everybody and making us of it and so Dora's talent for making plays had been put to good practice. Aside from him being a seeker, Harry actually had a large amount of respect from the previous captain. Although Harry would never admit it, the previous captain had almost been a role model for him and if someone were to compare the two they were certain to discover similarities.

"I can't wait for all of you to graduate and then I will become captain." The talk of who would become captain led to Roger mumbling under his breath a little too loudly that sadly for him, Harry and the others were able to pick up. Of course, they started to laugh, making Roger perform a stunningly good impression of a tomato.

"Wait, I should have bet on Roger!" Archie exclaimed between fits of laughter.

They were interrupted in their teasing of their tomato for a keeper by the feast ending and, as always, a boring speech from Dumbledore that Harry only half-listened to. He picked up something interesting however about the third floor being off-limits unless one wanted to die. _That is a good way to keep a school full of kids filled with curiosity away._

When they were finally dismissed and the students were led up to their common rooms Harry picked out Nymphadora Tonks in the crowds signaling that she wanted to talk to him. Not that it was hard to find her. Her pink hair stood out from the rest of the student population like a gorilla among baboons. For a second he pondered whether or not he should tell her that she just compared her to a gorilla before deciding against it. It would be hard to play Quidditch without a head. At least he had compared the other students to baboons and, at least in Harry's expert opinion, a gorilla was far better looking than a baboon.

Finally the rest of the student body had gone to their respective dorms and Harry and Tonks met in one of the hallways connecting to the Great Hall.

"Hi, Harry."

"Hey, Nymphie, I've missed you." Harry greeted her back and they shared a kiss, trying to make up for the time they hadn't been able to see each other. Tonks had gone to Greece for almost the whole summer so it had been months since they last met, far too long if you asked Harry.

Finally Tonks drew back with a pained expression on her face. "Harry, we need to talk." She said sadly before taking a deep breath. "I think we should break up."

Harry was stunned. He was known for his sharp wit and quick comments but now all he could do for the next few minutes was to just stare at her aimlessly. Finally he managed to talk again, although, thinking back he wished he hadn't.

"Who is he?" He demanded, anger evident in his voice.

"What?" Tonks eyes widened in surprise. "I haven't been cheating on you Harry. I…"

"So you didn't meet some Greek then? Or perhaps you never went to Greece at all. You met some guy here in Britain and the whole Greece-thing was just an excuse to avoid me. Is it someone in school? How could you…"

He was stopped by her mouth on his. He tried to push all his feelings, all his love into this one kiss. He didn't want it to end, but end it did.

"Harry, promise that you will listen to me," she began and gave him a serious look that brook no argument. He nodded slightly, not trusting his voice. "Harry, I did not cheat on you. There is no other guy and I really went to Greece for the summer hols." She stopped momentarily to see if he was following her before she continued. He was. "I love you. I really do! But I am now in my seventh year and I have a future to prepare for. I don't want to become one of those housewives that don't do anything other than stay at home and care for the house and/or eventual children. That is what is expected of women in wizard society but I don't want that. I want to be independent, to live without some man dictating how I should live my life. Can't you understand that?" She took a series of deep breaths and eyed Harry almost pleadingly. Harry was eyeing her in return, waiting expectantly for her to keep going. "I want to become an Auror! There, now I said it. It is incredibly hard, Harry, especially for a girl. I need to focus on my studies and training." Her outburst had come as a relief for and she was surprised to feel tears in her eyes. She looked at Harry, waiting for his reaction. What she saw was enough for her to let out a short and bitter laugh.

There was only one word to describe Harry with for the moment. Confused. He looked so much like a question mark that people who saw him would feel an urge to check if he was transfigured to look like one.

"I don't see what that has to do with us." He said finally. "I could help you with your studies and training. You know I would only support you, Nymphie."

"And that is exactly it!" She exclaimed, startling Harry. "Can you honestly promise that we will spend the rest of our lives together? After we break up, what will happen to me without your support? Will I be able to do nothing because I don't have a man to help me through my challenges anymore?" Harry's expression had turned to one of pain and her words took on a more soothing tone. "I know you can help me, Harry, and that is very sweet of you but I need to do this on my own. I need to prove to myself and the rest of the world that, as a woman, I am able to do just as well and better than any man. Without outside help, much less the help of a man! I don't want it said that I only made it because you helped me, Harry."

Harry growled slightly at this. "I could just not help you then."

"But people would still think that you were behind my success."

"So? You and I would know better. What does it matter what the others think?"

"It matters because I want to do more than just join the Aurors. Eventually I want to change the wizarding view of women. If people believe that my success is due to you, or any other man, then my struggle will be that much harder because of it."

"So this is the end then?" There were tears in his eyes but he didn't care. That men shouldn't cry was a stupid stereotype.

Tonks gave him a loving and sad smile with tears of her own slowly trickling down her cheeks. Merlin, she had a beautiful smile.

"Harry, I love you, I really do. But as much as it hurts me to say it, this is incredibly important to me."

"More important than us?" He asked, ashamed of doing so but too hurt to not do it. Tonks bit her lips hard.

"You aren't making this easy, Harry."

"I'm not really trying to." He said to no one in particular and she rewarded him with a flash of perfectly white teeth.

"This is bigger than just you and me, Harry. This is for all the women in the world." Every word was like a blow straight to his heart.

"I love you." He finally said, the tears rapidly trickling down his face and dropping silently onto the floor.

Tonks visibly prepared herself mentally for what she was to say next. "I love you too, Harry. That is why I won't ask you to wait for me. That would be too cruel and I cannot bring myself to do that to you…"

"I would, you know. Wait for you." He interrupted and she gave him another of her pained smiles. How she was able to smile so much in this situation was beyond Harry.

"I know you would and that is what I am afraid of. What if, by then, one of us stops loving the other? My heart nearly breaks at the mere thought of it."

"But my heart is breaking now." Harry said, voice breaking several times as if to signify the breaking of his heart. It really was hurting, a lot.

"Mine is too, Harry but it would be even worse than now." Tonks replied sadly and Harry looked at her skeptically.

"Can we at least have a goodbye kiss?" Harry asked desperately.

"I think we can." Tonks nodded and she leant forward, eyes closed.

Harry hesitated and took in as much of her as he could. Her beautiful face, long eyelashes and rosy cheeks. Her long bright and pink hair that he loved to play with. Her tall and slender body that she clumsily and adorably bumped into everything she could with. This could possibly their last kiss, ever, and without waiting for another second Harry closed the distance between them. This would be the kiss that signified the end of their relationship.

It ended much too soon to Harry's liking and by the looks of disappointment on Tonks she shared his sentiments. Neither of them made any move to continue it, though. They were both emotionally exhausted, having poured in all of their feelings into that one kiss. There was nothing left to be done that wouldn't make it even worse than it was.

"Goodbye, Harry." Tonks finally broke the silence and turned to go, leaving Harry alone in the now dim corridor.

"Goodbye, Nymphie." He said when she was already well out of earshot.

Feeling no urge to sleep, Harry turned to go outside instead. Well out in the fresh air he took a few deep breaths before reaching into his pocket and drawing out his shrunken broom. It was when he was flying that he felt the best so he never went anywhere without it. Unshrinking it he quickly climbed upon it and accelerated as fast as he could. He flew in between the towers of Hogwarts at such a high speed and with so little control that had his mother seen him, and cared for him, she would probably faint on the spot. He didn't care, however. He needed to do something that would make it hurt less and if risking his life through flying did that then he wouldn't complain.

After fifteen minutes of some of the most reckless flying Hogwarts had ever seen, Harry was as wet with sweat as if he would have taken a dip in the Great Lake. He slowed down and began to cruise around aimlessly, his flying as confused as his heart.

After a few hours he landed on top of the Astronomy tower. He lied down with his back on the roof and gazed up at the starry sky. It was beautiful, but not as beautiful as Tonks.

Normally, Harry would be able to pick out the different constellations in the night sky but not tonight. Everywhere he looked the stars formed into Tonks. But Harry didn't mind. He liked looking at her face, no matter how much it hurt. He laid there, tears trickling down his cheeks, and thought about his conversation with Tonks.

She was right, he knew that. The view that women were not as capable as men was a stupid view. Nevertheless it was a very real thing that many a people shared. It made Harry angry. Magic had nothing to do with gender. There wasn't a wizard in the world that wasn't matched with an equally capable witch. Even Merlin, deemed to be one of the greatest wizards of all time was matched by Morgana.

For once, Harry realized how lucky he was to be born as a boy. If he was a girl he wouldn't be the heir of the House of Potter with David being a boy. He thought about his mother, a simple housewife, supposed to be one of her generation's most talented witches. She was supposedly an equal to Hogwarts' own Professor Snape in Potions and incredibly good at Transfiguration. Why had she limited herself like this? Of course, she seems to love spending time with her children, except Harry, but how many options were available for her?

He thought of his sister. If they followed pureblood tradition she would be married off as a prize to one of the other families. Luckily, the Potters were not great keepers of tradition and Harry would in no way break that habit. Not for that kind of tradition anyway. Otherwise it would have been unlikely that his father would have been allowed to marry his mother, a muggleborn.

However, what of the other pureblood families? Like the Malfoys or even the Longbottoms. Harry knew that they put a lot of value into tradition and would most likely form marriage contracts for their children with no small amount of money being involved in the process as well.

Then he thought of Tonks. Her situation was what made him most angry. It was selfish, he knew, but he was only fourteen, a little selfishness is expected. Because of this bloody view on women she felt that she had to fight for it. Because of this bloody view on women she felt that she had to end their relationship, lest people would think him behind her success, despite both of them clearly still loving each other! There was nothing he could do to stop her because he knew that she was right and she was doing a good thing. It was important, more important than even their love.

Harry dried his tears on the back of his sleeve and grabbed his broom lying next to him. He flew down to the entrance of the castle and sneaked in. It was the middle of the night and luckily he managed to make it to the Ravenclaw common room without any hindrance. He had no idea if it was lucky for him or lucky for the people patrolling.

"What is half air-bound and half ground-bound?" The eagle knocker asked.

"A hippogriff," Harry answered halfheartedly.

He entered the wide circular common room and found that it wasn't empty. Some sixth year girls were sitting on some of the couches and talking. They quieted down as he entered and looked at him wide-eyed. Their eyes grew even wider as they saw the state he was in. His eyes were red and burned with an almost contagious sadness. His cheeks were dirty, his hair tousled and his clothes were both dirty and torn. They had certainly never seen Harry Potter like this.

Harry ignored them and proceeded up the stairs to his dorm. He tore off his clothes with the ferocity of an angered hippogriff and threw himself onto his bed, not caring if he woke up his dorm mates. Ever since he had left the roof of the Astronomy tower until the moment he fell asleep there was only one sentence echoing in his mind.

It was wrong, the world was so very wrong.

* * *

**AN:** Well, that was fun to write. I hope I managed to write the Tonks-Harry scene alright. So, tell me what you think and please review!


	4. Chapter 4

**AN:** New chapter, woho! The inspiration is flooding! Hope you'll enjoy!

* * *

The next morning at breakfast the Hall was bustling with rumours of Harry's late arrival to the Ravenclaw common room and the state he had been in. Piecing that together with the rumour of Tonks' tearful and not as late arrival to the Hufflepuff common room it wasn't that difficult for the student population to guess what had happened. The most famous couple in the school had broken up. That meant that they both, much to the pleasure of large parts of the school, were now back on the singles market.

There was a problem however. Although Tonks was sitting by the Hufflepuff table, Harry was nowhere to be seen. He hadn't come down for breakfast. This only seemed to prove the rumours in the eyes of the students and Tonks was bombarded with questions from the girls and even asked out by a few of the boys, and one or two girls, thinking that they should try their luck now that they had the chance. After sending the nuances a few minor jinxes and threatening to step up the severity of the curses they left her to her meal.

David was quite bothered by the great effect his hateful brother had on the student populace. In all but a night they had nearly forgotten him, the Boy-Who-Lived, when faced with a simple rumour of his brother's love life. When finally some of the students had thought to talk with him it had only been to ask if he knew anything of his brother's current situation, what his favourite flower was, if he liked chocolate, what he preferred in a girl (or boy to David's surprise) and other such trivialities. They were all quite disappointed to find that David did not know.

After breakfast David had come to the conclusion that the students of Hogwarts, in fact, knew more about his brother than he did.

.

Harry was lying in his bed, face buried in pillows, not even trying to rise up. It had been a fitful night with dreams of the only thing he could think of, Tonks. Going by the groans from his dorm mates they hadn't slept very well either. It was probably because of Harry barging through the doors in the middle of the night and then there was his restless sleep where he probably wasn't as silent as he might have liked.

"Blimey, mate!" Archie explained next to his bed. "Are you alright? You barge in on us at two and then we have to put silencing charms around your bed because of the shouting. What happened?"

Harry groaned slightly in answer. After a moment of silence Archie attempted to roll him over so he could see Harry's face but Harry refused to budge.

"Connie, mind giving me a hand?" Archie asked one of their dorm mates.

Harry could hear the heavy footsteps of Conrad Carroll, a stocky and muscular boy with short blond hair, coming closer. He looked typically like the type that was more brawn than brain with his thick muscles and love for tank tops. Surprisingly, he was probably one of the Claws that spent the most time in the library, knowing it almost as well as Hogwarts own librarian, Madam Pince. He was a quiet and shy boy but if one initiated a conversation about books with him one would find it easy to become his friend.

.

With the help of Conrad it was almost easy for Archie to flip Harry over despite his weak attempts of resistance. But what they found was not a pretty sight. Harry looked dirty and the skin around his eyes was a strained red. The most unsettling things, nevertheless, were his eyes, if they could be called that. They seemed empty, haunted as they stared straight at Archie. Frankly, it sent shivers down Archie's spine and Conrad took an involuntary step back when Harry shifted his ghostly gaze to him.

"Merlin's toe on a stub!" Archie cursed. "What happened to you? I thought you were catching up with Tonks last night!"

This had clearly been the wrong thing to say as Harry's hollow eyes quickly filled with water. "Tonks," he whispered and his eyes flashed like the breaking of a dam before the tears began to flood.

"Bloody… bloody hell!" Archie exclaimed. "Connie, can you help me get Harry to the showers?" He asked his big friend who simply nodded in response.

Together they carried Harry to the showers at the end of their dorm and put him beneath one of the mouthpieces.

"Thanks for the help, mate." Archie thanked Connie. "You don't have to wait for us. This might take a while."

Connie nodded, and proceeded to join their other dorm mates, Darnell Knight and Jorge Mathis, before going down to breakfast.

Archie, on the other hand, stayed in the shower with his best friend. He took the mouth piece from its fastening and aimed it at Harry before turning on the water, not caring that his friend still wore his boxers. He never cared for seeing his friend naked anyway, and on the bright side this would mean less laundry for the house elves. Thinking about it, Archie thought that not seeing Harry naked was also on the bright side. Not that he thought there was anything bad about the male body or anything, just that he preferred his friend with clothes on.

"Hey, Harry? You there? What happened, mate? You know you can talk to me." Archie tried and failed to provoke any reaction at all from Harry.

He just sat there, back against the wall, arms around his knees and stared sightlessly into the wall opposite him. Archie had never seen his friend like this before and it was deeply disconcerting.

Suddenly he got an idea. Turning off the shower he ran into the dorm room and rooted through the clothes around Harry's bed until he found what he was searching for. Harry's broom.

Returning to the shower he found Harry in the same exact spot where he had left him. No surprise there. Now, if this doesn't do anything I'll bring him to Madam Pomfrey.

"Harry!" He called sharply and the boy in question slightly moved his head in reaction. It was barely noticeable but it was a reaction. Good, at least I know that he hears me. "If you don't tell me what happened last night I will snap your broom in two." As if to show that he was serious, Archie raised his right knee and held the broom over it. He was about to start a countdown but he didn't have time to.

As if on cue, Harry's head snapped up in Archie's direction and his emerald eyes widened, finally showing hints of life.

"No!" He shouted, almost causing Archie to go deaf.

"Good!" Archie barked and threw a bottle of shampoo at his friend who caught it out of reflex. "Now clean up. I'll wait for you in the dorm. You have five minutes or this broom of yours is gone."

Harry looked Archie in the eyes, seeing that he was deadly serious, and then looked down at himself as if seeing the dirt and feeling the dried sweat for the first time. Quickly, as if his life depended on it, he took off his trunks and put on the shower, starting to clean up from whatever he had done that put him into this state.

Archie turned around and groaned slightly. _He could at least wait until I was out of the shower before he goes all naked on me,_ he thought as he walked into their dorm and plopped down onto his bed.

.

Harry was done in three minutes and it was not because he wasn't fully cleaned. When his broom was on the line Harry Potter would defy the laws of physics to save it. He had even cleaned the back of his ears to the point where it was possible to mistake it for the polished floor of Buckingham Palace. No, he was definitely clean enough and it felt… refreshing. _The only thing that was missing was To… no, don't go there,_ Harry thought darkly as he entered his dorm. Archie was lying on his bed, reading some muggle comic before looking up at Harry and then returned to his comic. He was nearly finished.

As Harry got dressed it was Archie who broke the silence, his comic finished and placed under his bed.

"So, talk or breakfast first?"

Harry looked at him and thought for a moment. "Talk over breakfast?" He asked and Archie nodded.

Seeing that Harry was fully clothed he rose up and proceeded to leave. "Let's go then, I'd prefer not to have to go to the kitchens."

They walked down to the Great Hall in silence, not feeling the need to speak. Harry just felt incredibly lucky that he had Archie as a friend. Although Harry felt far from good, Archie had somehow, for the moment at least, stopped Harry from falling down a painful and haunted spiral of depression. After all, there was a difference between being sad and being depressed.

Once they entered the Great Hall, all heads turned towards them. Harry got a strange feeling of Déjà vu and thought of yesterday when he had arrived with the hat. It made him forget his sadness for a moment and he allowed himself to flash a smile. He immediately caught sight of Tonks, however, and he was on the verge of returning to his hollow self. She was staring down at her plate, refusing to look up at him. He felt Archie drag him towards the Slytherin table, the table furthest from Tonks, and they sat down with their backs towards her so that they faced the wall. Although Harry hadn't actually said that his current state was specifically because of Tonks, Archie knew him too well. Despite not having heard any of the rumours yet there had been enough hints so far for him to make an educated guess of the situation.

Preparing some fruits and toasts for Harry he gave his best friend a simple command, "Eat." He then turned to the person on his other side, a surprised Gwen Ballard, a Slytherin girl in their year and inquired loudly what the reason for everybody staring at them was on this particularly fine morning.

As if Archie's loud inquiry was the starting shot, Harry was soon swarmed by students asking their own questions, causing him to turn around to see what the commotion was about. He only heard the first question, however.

"Is it true that you and Tonks broke up?" One of the boys asked, a second year, Harry thought.

It was, nevertheless, all that was required for Harry's usually warm emerald eyes, that the students were used to and loved, to turn cold and hollow. Their apparent emptiness halted the other students from asking their questions and they all, just like Connie had, took an involuntary step backwards, shuddering slightly.

Archie, worried for his friend now that his suspicions were confirmed damned himself silently for not going to the kitchens anyway. He stood up and turned Harry around to his plate once again where he obediently returned to follow Archie's previous command. Archie moved so he was in between Harry and the annoying students meddling in stuff they had no business in.

"Leave." He said simply although this one word was layered with threats and his tone made sure that they all understood it. The results were the students scattering like the wind. Archie did have a little of a reputation himself, although it wasn't as great as Harry's.

Sitting down again he brought out his wand and cast the strongest silencing charms that he knew around himself and Harry.

"Tell me everything." He said, voice soft as he noticed his words had a sort of soothing effect on Harry.

Harry took a drink from his pumpkin and then he breathed deeply, preparing himself to retell all that happened after the Feast yesterday.

It took him ten minutes. Archie was a good listener, giving him time to retell some parts when he needed it and urging him to go on when he needed it.

It felt good to tell him. Like a small weight had been lifted off his chest. When he was done Archie put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and brought him into an embrace.

"You'll get out of this mate. I'll make sure you will."

They pulled apart and Harry returned to his breakfast. "Thank you," he said between bites and Archie simply nodded in turn. They finished breakfast, undisturbed by other people.

Luckily it was the weekend and there were no classes for the day. After breakfast Archie and Harry went out to the grounds and lay down in the grass, basking in the warmth of the sun while they still could.

After a while Harry took off his robes, showing off his well-toned chest in the process, earning himself a questioning look from Archie. In response to the unasked question, Harry shrugged nonchalantly.

"I need to move my body. Care for some training?"

Archie shrugged in response and also took off his robes, revealing a body equal to that of Harry's, to then join him in stretching.

Together they made quite the pair and they soon had quite a few spectators, ranging between girls and boys from all years and houses. Hogwarts united to watch a pair of heart-throbs train. The thought put a slight smile on Harry's lips.

The stretching was followed by a number of physical exercises using their own bodies as weights, push-ups, sit-ups and a series of other stuff. They even had a planking competition to see who could stand the longest but after five minutes they grew bored and stopped it. Their tanned bodies were now glistening with sweat and almost shined in the sunlight, giving off a bronze like hue.

Finally Harry had enough of the physical exercising. He picked up a stick and threw it towards Archie who caught it deftly.

"Let's spar." He said and looked for another stick. A shy girl in her second-year soon stepped forward, holding a stick of appropriate size. He stumbled as he was about to thank her and blinked, somehow seeing Tonks face on her, his heart beginning to heart. Once he looked up, however, there were only the blushing cheeks of a red-haired Hufflepuff girl in front of him. She looked nothing like Tonks. He quickly regained his posture, and thanked her with a charming smile.

He turned back to Archie and saw that he had already shaved his stick into a smooth pole and charmed it to feel soft at the touch. Drawing out his wand, Harry quickly did the same to his own. They had done this quite often before and it could hurt rather badly to get hit by the sticks, in some cases even bones were broken. It had taken some time but after a lot of research they found the charms they needed to lessen the damage they would inflict on each other. They would still often enough leave some rather large welts and bruises on each other, though.

Closing the distance to just a few feet they began to circle each other, sticks in front of them, pointing at their opponent. Suddenly Harry took a few quick steps, closing the distance and brought his stick down in small but quick arcs, aiming for Archie's legs. Archie easily blocked all of his attempts, however and managed to push him off with a shove. He then advanced upon Harry and swung his stick upwards in a wide diagonal arch that, had it been a sword, would have made a long slash from Harry's waist to his shoulder. Harry, knowing that if he tried to block it the strength of Archie's swing would make him lose his stance and leave him wide open for another assault, dodged nimbly by jumping backwards and before Archie could bring down his stick again Harry brought up his own, forcing Archie's to stay up in the air. While their arms were locked in a battle of strength Harry aimed a kick at Archie who brought up his knee to intercept it to lessen the damage made. It was a faint however and Harry drew his leg back slightly to then quickly swipe it beneath Archie's raised knee to target his other leg, the one he had all his weight on. With his leg swept out from under him, Archie fell on his back and without being given a chance to recover, he found Harry's stick aimed at his throat.

"Dead," Harry said and gave him an amused smirk before pumping his fist in the air to the cheering of the spectators.

Archie growled in irritation and pushed Harry's stick away with his free hand. "Again," He said and rose up. They moved a few feet from each other and another sparring match began.

They continued to spar for quite some time, trying out the new tricks and techniques they had learnt or come up with during the summer. They switched naturally between strength, precision and agility in unpredictable combinations and patterns.

They were in no way real swordsmen, following one or another of the schools, but they were self-taught, learning from whatever books and muggle movies they could find and their only limit being their imagination. There was only so much that you could learn from books alone and there were certainly mistakes in their stances that they were unable to see in themselves or their friend. They believed, however, that their unorthodox and mixed style was far from bad and in an actual fight they might do rather well. But if an opportunity presented itself and they could learn from a real swordsman they would definitely grab it.

After quite some time when Archie was showing Harry the move he had used to win the latest spar, he had seen it in a muggle movie called 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', they were interrupted by a voice that had yet to reach puberty.

"What are you doing?" The voice said and the spectators split to let through a short raven haired first year, with glasses and a lightning bolt scar on his forehead. David Potter was wearing a condescending sneer as he approached his brother.

"What does it look like kiddo?" Harry replied while trying to replicate what Archie just had showed him.

"You are fighting like muggles!" David accused them.

"Ten points to Gryffindor for your incredible display of intelligence!" Archie announced, earning quite a few sniggers from the audience and a reddening of David's cheeks.

"Why? You are of the Ancient and Noble House of Potter. You shouldn't fight like muggles when you have wands!" David insisted, earning a heavy sigh from his brother who had now turned his attention to his brother.

"And what if I become disarmed or am unable to use magic for some reason? Should I then be as defenceless as a lamb? While magic is indeed far superior, I would prefer not to be too reliant on it and have a few other things up my sleeve."

David paused for a moment, seeing the logic in his brother's argument. The little git was, nevertheless, intent on somehow embarrassing his brother and, seeing that his first tactic failed, he changed approach.

"You know, I would prefer it if you kept your love life private. It is quite boring and utterly disinteresting hearing about your pathetic breakup. Just because nobody at home listens..."

He got no further as a palm struck his chin, the force of the blow sending him tumbling to the ground. The audience went completely silent.

"You insolent little git! Shut your mouth before I do it for you." Archie, the one who had struck him, shouted. He then turned, with the rest of the spectators, to look at Harry.

Harry had frozen in place, his mind fighting to not give in to the pain. His eyes had adopted their previous hollowness as the inner battle raged on. He could somehow notice the audience gasped as he gazed upon them, but he couldn't see or hear anything. He was losing the battle and his senses were shutting down. He fell into the darkness.

.

Archie swore as his friend so quickly reverted to the very same state he had forced him out of.

"I suggest you run or I'll make you wish you had." Archie told the Brat-Who-Lived darkly.

The brat made as if to retort before he looked over to his brother. Nervously, and wisely, he scuttled away while clutching his aching cheek.

Archie watched him go before turning to the rest of the audience.

"Leave."

There was no room for argument and they turned as if to go but just before they left a second year girl, the same girl that had given Harry his stick, gasped and pointed to Harry who was beginning to fall backwards. Archie was there in an eye blink and caught his friend as he passed out.

Swearing, he levitated Harry and started the long walk to the infirmary. He left the clothes for the House elves.

It was quite a sight to see two of Hogwarts most popular boys walking bare breasted in the halls of Hogwarts. Well, one of them was walking, the other floating next to him. No one dared comment anything, though, as Archie glared at anyone opening their mouth.

He came to a halt, however, when he heard the voice of Professor McGonagall.

"Archibald Mimosa!" Archie cringed slightly at the use of his full name. "Whatever is the matter with Mr. Potter?" She ignored their state of undress in favour of the state Harry seemingly was in although she did see the number of welts on both of their bodies. "Did you knock him out with that sparring of yours?" She asked disapprovingly.

"No, Professor," he answered earnestly. "This is something else. He was broken hearted and we trained to get him to think of other things but then he was reminded of Tonks and he became like this."

"Surely a simple heartbreak is not responsible for this?"

"I agree, Professor."

"Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's hurry up and escort Mr. Potter to the infirmary." McGonagall said and conjured a shirt for both Harry and Archie.

Archie flared his nose in irritation at the Professor's tone but wisely complied without comment. They quickly made their way to a surprised Pomfrey.

"Only the second day of the term, She said and shook her head while levitating Harry to one of the beds. With the practiced skill of a professional she went through a number of diagnostic spells and after a few moments she dispelled Harry's shirt, revealing quite a number of bruises. She gave Archie a doubtful look and he shook his head.

"No, Madam Pomfrey. It's not because of our sparring." And so, he told her what he had told McGonagall just a little earlier. The Medi-witch's reaction was much like McGonagall's.

"You mean to tell me that Mr. Potter is in this state due to a simple heartbreak?" She inquired while raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know, Professor. Please, just help him." Archie pleaded and plopped down on the bed next to him, exhausted as he was. He groaned slightly as he lied down on one of his newly attained bruises.

Without speaking she dispelled also Archie's shirt and eyed his bruises. It was not the first time they had come to her after a training session. She went to a cabinet and brought out a salve and handed a tube to Archie, who gratefully accepted, before returning to Harry. She began to rub the salve onto Harry's bruises while speaking so that both Archie and McGonagall could hear.

"Rub this on now and before bed tonight and your bruises should be gone by tomorrow." She explained before addressing McGonagall. "Minerva, would you be so kind and go and get Albus? I think he would like to see this."

"Of course, Poppy. I'll be right back." McGonagall answered and exited the room.

Once the door closed behind her, Archie plopped down on the bed and let himself succumb to the comfort of his dreamland.

.

Harry was standing on an empty grassy field with the sun shining. He recognized the place. It was his mind. He had been there several times through his Occlumency. But it shouldn't look like this. There should have been a wide ring of tight iron walls surrounding the plain along with quite a few other surprises he had concocted up for intruders. Somehow it was all gone and that didn't bode well. Not well at all.

The last thing he could remember was struggling against something dark and painful. He was losing that battle and now he was here, in his mindscape.

As if he had called it, something clad in black fell down from the sky and landed right in front of him, shrouds of black mist bellowing out from where the thing landed like ripples in water.

Looking at it closer, Harry could see that the thing clad in dark was a surprisingly handsome man with very pale skin, bordering on albino.

"Who are you?" Harry asked the intruder of his mind.

"_I, my dear boy, am Lord Voldemort and I have finally broken into your mind."_ The man's voice was smooth as silk, almost alluring.

"What? You are dead." Harry said in disbelief. "You died when you attacked my brother and I ten years ago." The man, Voldemort, cackled at him.

"_No, my boy, I did not die. I am immortal! Something as simple as an Avada Kedavra is not enough to kill me."_

"But why are you here? In my mind?"

"_Ah, now that is an interesting question."_ Voldemort said and went into teacher mode. It was kind of disturbing. _"It seems that, when the killing curse rebounded from you two, a piece of my soul fastened itself onto you, one on you and one on your lovely little brother."_ He paused a little before continuing. _"Your mother, although she wasn't present, had protected you with some sort of shield of love,"_ Voldy grimaced at the word 'love'. _"But now, with your heart broken by that beautiful metamorphmagi,"_ To Harry's disgust Voldy was licking his lips at the thought of Tonks. _"It was the perfect opportunity for me to break through. I'll admit that you fought well and with the help of your friend you almost stopped me but then your little brother chose to intervene and it allowed me to finally break through."_

Harry thought about the muggle movies he had seen where the villain always revealed his plan right before he thought he had won. Either Voldemort had watched too many muggle movies, which Harry doubted, or this was a pure coincidence or the muggle movies were surprisingly accurate in depicting evil villains. Deciding to play his part as the hero, he chose to taunt He-Who-Must-Ne-Hyphenised. "So, Voldy, you mean that my brother and I are The-_Boys_-Who-Lived?" Harry asked with an amused smirk. Not something that the fearsome and dark Lord Voldemort was expecting.

"_Yes,"_ he spat venomously, _"but soon there will only be one Boy-Who-Lived as the world believes."_

And with that, Voldemort attacked him. Harry found himself surrounded by darkness and he felt pain, insurmountable pain. He heard Voldemort's cackling laughter outside and he could feel himself being taken over. He tried to desperately come up with something, anything that he could use to get out of the situation.

He imagined sending a pulse out from him and felt the pain lessening, but it was only momentarily. Realizing that Harry was resisting, Voldemort increased his pressure.

Suddenly, Harry remembered what Voldemort had said in his 'evil villain'-monologue. His comments about love and what had allowed him to break into Harry's mind. Voldemort must have thought that he had finally broken Harry as the boy started to laugh. It was all just way too cliché. Voldy had given the key to how Harry would defeat him right before he began his final attack. Maybe He-Who-Must-Ne-Hyphenised had watched too many muggle movies.

Harry took a deep breath, though he didn't know if he actually needed to since he was in his mindscape, and he thought about Tonks. More specifically, he thought about his love for Tonks, ignoring the fact that they had broken up. In fact, once he had localized it, he ignored everything but that feeling of love, not even noticing that it was for Tonks anymore.

"_What is this?"_ He heard Voldy say.

Harry opened his eyes to see a bright pink fire spreading out from him, burning the darkness of Voldemort. He concentrated on pushing the pink fire, his love, further from him and, erasing every trace of the darkness from Voldemort making the man give off an unearthly shriek.

"_Stop!"_

"No, Voldy." Harry said, walking towards the Dark Lord in his once again green mindscape. "You do know that you brought this upon yourself? It was you who made me realize how I could defeat you. Kind of ironic, isn't it?" And so, he had almost finished his part as a hero in this muggle movie. Gathering a ball of pink love in his hands he held them at the side of his waist. "Ready, Voldy?" He asked, mocking the wide-eyed Dark Lord. "Ka...me...ha...me..."

"_What are you doing?" _Voldemort asked, fearful of this unknown incantation.

"Oh, just a muggle reference," Harry answered. "Ha!"

A beam of pink shot straight towards Voldemort and, since they was inside of Harry's mindscape, Voldemort wasn't able to dodge or block it. Upon hitting the Dark Lord he let out a shriek that would unnerve even a dementor. Luckily, Harry was no dementor and so, he only watched as the pink spread from Voldemort's chest until it enveloped his whole body.

The Dark Lord then exploded and for a minute pink snowflakes fell slowly and softly on the grass of Harry's mindscape, erasing all evidence of Voldemort inside of Harry.

Harry closed his eyes for a second, relishing in the victory of the moment. When he opened his eyes again he was pleased to see the defences of his mind were back in place. Thinking for a second, he added some wizards on his walls capable of doing only one thing. That is, sending pink rays of love against intruders.

Pleased with himself, he left his mindscape, and opened his eyes to the real world.

* * *

**AN:** So, what you think? I thought it was rather good myself. Don't know if the fight vs Voldy was serious or not XD PINK KAMEHAMEHA

Please review!


	5. Chapter 5

**AN:** Hi! Here is the new chapter! It is definitely one of my favourites so far! I hope you will enjoy it as well!

Btw, is a dsiclaimer really necessary? It is marked as a fanfiction, isn't that enough in itself?

* * *

When Harry opened his eyes, he found that he was not alone, quite far from it actually. He was in one of the beds in the infirmary and Dumbledore was standing over him and looking at him with wide blue eyes, not a sign of a twinkle anywhere. Madam Pomfrey was next to the bed, along with his Head of House, Flitwick, as well as Professor McGonagall. He looked to his left and saw Archie sitting on the bed and looking at him, worry evident in his eyes. They were all staring at him as if he was some kind of a circus animal.

After taking in the scene, Harry's eyes returned to Dumbledore. The old man was a skilled Legilimens, and Harry's walls had been down while he fought off Voldemort. Just how much did the old man know?

Before he was able to say anything, however, Madam Pomfrey was at his side, fussing over him.

"Mr. Potter. How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine, great actually." Harry tried to rise up but he was quickly pushed down again.

"Lie still, you will stay for the night, at least. It's a wonder you woke up so quickly." She cast a couple of diagnostic charms and frowned at whatever they were showing. "That's weird. No signs at all." She mumbled.

"Could someone tell me what the hell is going on?" Harry exclaimed, having had enough of being stared at.

His outburst must have worked since it seemed to have startled them out of their shock. It was Archie, he could always trust Archie, who finally spoke up. He told them all of everything that had happened since morning and they all listened carefully, even Harry. He found that there were lapses in his memory. He didn't remember waking up, but then there he was in the shower. He didn't remember some parts of breakfast and then he remembered training with Archie when his git of a brother interrupted them. After that, it was all blank. Apparently, according to Madam Pomfrey, he had fallen into some kind of magically induced coma, one she had never seen before.

"Okay," he dragged the word out. "So, I get this hollow look in my eyes and I can't remember anything from those periods. Finally, I got it again when my bastard brother came and interrupted our training and then I passed out?"

"Language, Mr. Potter!" McGonagall admonished him.

"Well, he is a bit of a bastard. Didn't you hear the story? He was the one who made me go all hollow and pass out."

"We should not jump to conclusions here, Mr. Potter, it might have happened anyway, going by the day's events." She defended his little brother. Harry just shrugged in response, not bothering to argue. Finally, Dumbledore chose to intervene.

"If it would be alright with you, I would like to have a word with Mr. Potter." As no one made a move he cleared his throat, "Privately, if you'd please."

"Fine," Madam Pomfrey conceded, "But he stays in the infirmary." She insisted and Dumbledore nodded wisely, preparing to cast some silencing charms.

"Actually, I would like for Professor Flitwick to be present." Harry quickly interjected and when he saw the Headmaster's frown he added, "It says in the rules that with the absence of parents, or magical guardians, a student is able to have their Head of House attend a meeting with the Headmaster in their stead." He twisted is head to the small Charms professor.

"Of course!" Flitwick piped. "If you wish it, I will attend, Mr. Potter."

Harry nodded and then turned back to Dumbledore who sighed slightly and then cast some of the most complex privacy and silencing charms Harry had ever seen.

"Albus?" Flitwick asked carefully.

It was Harry, however, who took command of the situation. "How much did you see?" He asked the Headmaster accusingly.

"Harry, I cannot begin to…"

"It's Mr. Potter to you, and no beating around the bush, old man. Since when did you use Legilimency on me?" He ignored the widening of Flitwick's eyes.

"I arrived just in time to see you nearly crushed by Voldemort's darkness." He sighed.

So he hadn't heard their conversation then. The old man must think that he chose the wrong Boy-Who-Lived. Harry needed to fix this. He didn't want people to fawn over him and celebrate him like they had his brother. It was exactly that which had made his parents ignore him and ruined his life. If his parents would only notice him because of something like this, then he would rather they kept being oblivious to his existence.

"Albus Dumbledore! You used Legilimency on a student! How could you?" Flitwick sounded incredulous.

"It was necessary, Filius. Voldemort is involved." Dumbledore effectively silenced the Charms Professor before he got a chance to rant on about the students' privacy and rights. "Now, Harr… Mr. Potter. There is no easy way to say this, so I will be blunt. It seems that I was wrong so many years ago. You are the one chosen to defeat Lord Voldemort." Flitwick gasped slightly in awe and his eyes shifted to Harry.

"No, you weren't wrong." Harry stated simply.

"What?" Dumbledore and Flitwick chorused.

"David is still the Boy-Who-Lived."

"Harry," Dumbledore said, ignoring Harry's scowl at the use of his first name. "I understand that it is a hard truth to accept but…"

"Stop right there and listen to me, old man." Harry interrupted and proceeded to tell everything that happened in his mindscape to the Headmaster and his Head of House. He left out the details of the defences of his mind, of course, but otherwise he told them everything.

"So, there are two Boys-Who-Lived." Dumbledore mused to himself.

"The world needs to know." Flitwick said and prepared to leave.

"No!" Harry cried out, causing the Professors to turn shocked and confused eyes to him. He sighed, "I would rather no one knew."

"But, my dear Harry, why?" Flitwick asked and Dumbledore nodded curiously in agreement to the question.

"I don't want it. Everything I hate lies in that title. I want nothing to do with it. If you tell anyone I will change schools to Beauxbatons."

"I highly doubt you parents would allow you to do that, Harry." Dumbledore said gently, as if reminding him, the twinkle in his eyes back as if it never had been gone. He wasn't ready for Harry to laugh in answer, however.

"Oh, they won't mind. They haven't really spoken to me since Halloween when I was four. They won't even notice." There was a hint of sadness in his voice that didn't go unnoticed by either of them.

Flitwick, ever the sharp minded, quickly did the math in his head. "But that must have been when …" His eyes widened in realization as Harry nodded in answer to his unfinished question. There was a lot of widening of Flitwick's eyes today but Harry couldn't really blame him. There were a lot of surprises for Flitwick today as well.

"I am so sorry, Harry." The little Charms professor said and shook his head solemnly.

"It's alright, Professor. You have nothing to do with it. You have always treated me fairly and I wouldn't want you to start favouring me in any way. I am sure I am not the only one coming from a bad childhood."

"Of course." Flitwick agreed and gave Harry a look as if to say 'how could you even think otherwise?' It made Harry smile.

"Harry…" Dumbledore began, only to be interrupted by Harry once again.

"Save it, old man. I would like to be angry with you but somehow I can't. You were right that night, if only partly. David has the scar, it was an understandable mistake. It was not you that made my parents neglect me. That responsibility lies solely with them." He saw Dumbledore nod slightly, a sad smile ornamenting his grandfatherly face. Oh, that smile is soon going to fall off. "However, you barely acknowledged me until I began Hogwarts and excelled in every class. Therefore we are nowhere near friends. To me you are only my Headmaster and to you I am only Mr. Potter. Understood?" As Harry had predicted, Dumbledore's smile, sad though it was, quickly turned into a frown.

"Ha… Mr. Potter. Are you sure this is what you want?" Dumbledore inquired sadly.

"Yes, I am. Now I am tired and I suggest you leave me and find some way to teach David how to deal with his inner Voldemort. You know he has enough love to do it and some to spare. But you probably shouldn't tell him about it yet, he's too young." Harry dismissed the Headmaster who could only nod. "Professor Flitwick," Harry turned to his favourite professor, "Thank you for being here, supporting me."

"No, thank _you_, Mr. Potter, for showing me that you trust me enough to let me in on some of your deepest secrets." Flitwick squeaked gratefully. "As a teacher, there is no greater reassurance that one is doing something right." Flitwick almost managed to make Harry smile. "Now, we will leave you to rest." And with that, the Charms Professor easily took down the impressive privacy charms around them and walked out of the infirmary, taking McGonagall and Dumbledore with him.

"Blimey mate." Archie blurted as soon as the door closed behind them. "You had me worried. You had the whole school worried! I wouldn't be surprised if you drown in get-well gifts tomorrow, by how popular you are." He winked as Harry groaned. He was glad to notice that Harry's eyes were back to their normal full-of-life selves, albeit a little tired. "So, will you tell me of your meeting with great ol' Dumbles?"

"I'll tell you tomorrow. Despite being out so much, I feel ludicrously tired." Harry voiced.

"You definitely will save it for tomorrow!" Pomfrey appeared from nowhere and almost scolded them. She handed him a reddish potion. "Drink this. It will give you a long and undisturbed sleep. You will stay here tomorrow so we make sure you won't have any relapses."

"Thank you Poppy. I missed you too." Harry flirted but Poppy chose to ignore him and instead administered the same potion to Archie. He did, however, see Archie sending a flashing grin towards the matron who quickly scurried off, muttering.

Harry quickly downed the vial and soon found himself falling asleep with a smile on his face as he heard the matron mutter something about it being only the first day and already they were back in the infirmary. She really should put their names on the beds.

.

It seemed that Archie was right in his prediction. There was indeed a small mountain of gifts at the food of his bed as Harry awoke. It's only the second whole day of school. How did they manage to get all these gifts here so fast? Most of them were chocolates from girls. He would have to be careful in case any of them contained a love potion. It wouldn't be the first time.

He looked to his left and saw Archie still sleeping soundlessly. He looked out the window, it was well in the afternoon. How long had they been asleep?

What surprised him the most, however, was the person sitting on the chair to the right of his bed. There sat the childish git that had taken all their parents affection for himself, the bane of all his problems, David Arcturus Potter. The boy was eyeing his gifts enviously.

"What do you want?" Harry asked tiredly, not bothering to come up with any insults. By the way, he would have to replenish his stock of those or he would become too repetitive.

"I wanted to apologize for my behaviour yesterday." David said earnestly. David. Apologize? "I was a childish little…"

"Tosser?" Harry suggested, not remembering having used that one before. David gave him a look that made Harry grin.

"Yes, a tosser. I am used to being the centre of attention but here, after the initial excitement, you are everything people are talking about. I guess I got jealous." The knob head admitted.

Harry was working up a whole new vocabulary of insults and he felt it was going pretty well. Wait a minute. David. Was. Jealous. Of Harry? He could laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. He chose not to, though, feeling that it would be inappropriate and he didn't want to wake up Archie.

"It's not like I chose to be Mr. Popular, you know." He chose to say instead, not knowing why he was trying to make his brother feel better. "I am just being myself, doing what I want to." _Well, not all that I want to, breaking up with Tonks for example._ It still hurt, thinking about her, but it felt much better than before. Fighting off Voldemort had its advances, he supposed. He decided that a change of topics was needed. "So, how are your studies going?"

David, who had been looking at his feet, quickly looked up in surprise. "What? Classes only started just today!"

"And you should be well ahead in your studies. You read through your books in the summer, right?" David looked back down at his feet in response to Harry's stern look. "I expect you to be top of your class. Nothing else is accepted from a Potter, especially not the great and famous Boy-Who-Lived. If you have any problems, come to me. I was first in my class and I expect you to excel as well. I want the teachers praising you in the hallways. Understood?" Maybe something good could come of this anyway.

Next it was David's turn to surprise Harry. "Alright, but then I want something in exchange."

Harry raised an eyebrow and looked at his brother curiously. "You want something in return for being at the top of your class, getting praised by teachers and probably family, living up to your expectations plus getting the help from me to get all of that?"

David quickly turned red, realizing how it sounded. "Well, when you say it like that..."

"What is it you want?" Harry demanded impatiently.

A few moments of silence followed his demand and David looked as if he was gathering his courage for something.

"I want to train with you." He finally blurted out, fully expecting a point-blank no in response.

"Sure." Harry responded simply.

"It's fine, it was an unreasonable request any... wait, what?" David's eyes widened in disbelief.

"Sure, I'll let you join our training." Harry repeated. "It will help you in many ways and it is probably expected of you. But if you slow us down, I will not hesitate to leave you behind. You will work your hardest from day one." He looked towards his brother who nodded dumbly in response. "Good, now run along and get to reading ahead on your classes. Begin with Potions, Snape doesn't like Potter's and he will make life hell for you unless you are prepared." When he mentioned Snape, he thought he saw something flash in his brother's eyes. _So he has already met with Snape. Let's hope not too much damage has been done._ "What are you waiting for?" He admonished his brother when he saw that he still wasn't moving. "Go!"

His brother quickly rose up and scuttled off, saying his goodbyes over his shoulder right before he left the infirmary.

Harry turned in his bed and found himself looking at a wide awake Archie, who wore a big ugly grin on his face.

"So you do care." He teased.

Harry groaned and threw his pillow at his gloating friend. "Shut up."

What the heck was he doing? He was helping his brother, who he hated, in his classes so that the dunderhead would impress everyone and confirm their expectations of the bloody Boy-Who-Lived. He told himself it was for the pride of the family, and to help him so that he could eventually fight off the Voldemort inside him. No matter how much he hated the little shite, nobody deserved to be possessed by Voldemort.

Archie was right though. No matter how much he denied it, he did care. There was a small part of him that would always look out for his family. It was almost destroyed during the time when he was completely alone. His fourth to sixth year were a time of total darkness, but then Désirée appeared and lit up his world. If it wasn't for her, he would probably have run away from home long ago, a ruined and lost person, incapable of caring for anyone.

Snapping out of his reminiscing, it wasn't like him anyway, he sat up in his bed. He felt just fine and as far as he knew, there had been no relapses in his weird magical coma. It was probably because he destroyed the piece of soul belonging to Voldemort.

"Archie, let's go?" He asked his friend who nodded. As if possessed by a sixth sense, Madam Pomfrey emerged from her study just as they stood up.

"Mr. Potter! Did I discharge you from my care? I think not!" She sounded affronted that he would even think of leaving without her permission.

"But I feel just fine Poppy!" He objected. "Do your diagnostic charms and you will find that there is nothing wrong with me!"

She gave him an incredulous look, "We'll see about that," and did as he suggested. She frowned, as if insulted by the results. "Fine, Mr. Potter. You may leave, but you will promise to report to me after dinner every day for a week so I can check up on you."

"Thank you Poppy!" He exclaimed childishly and gave her a hug. "You are the best!" He laughed and left a slightly flustered Madam Pomfrey in his wake, his gifts levitating after him. Archie was already halfway out the door and sniggered at his antics.

"So, you gonna tell me what happened with Dumbledore and Flitty?" He asked.

"Yeah, but let's get to our dorm first."

They walked leisurely towards the Ravenclaw Tower, greeting anyone they came across. There were quite a few people who seemed relieved that Harry was alright and some other ones that sent him jealous looks as he walked past.

As they approached their common room, they saw a group of second years waiting outside, unable to answer the riddle. As soon as they saw him they looked relieved, and slightly awed by the gifts levitating behind him, to see an older student coming to save them, but when they noticed who exactly it was, they began to gossip.

"We can't answer the question!" Someone piped from the crowd.

Harry nodded and did his best to ignore the whispering while pushing through to the eagle knocker.

"What's the riddle?" He demanded impatiently.

"I am one color, but not one size. I am stuck at the bottom, yet I easily fly. I am present in the sun, but not in the rain. I do no harm and feel no pain. What am I? " The eagle knocker's melodious voice asked.

"You're a shadow." Harry answered off-handedly. He thought he could hear some ahs and ohs at the answer of the question behind him.

"You are quick-witted beyond measure," said the voice behind the eagle knocker and the door spun open, allowing them all to enter.

"Bloody hell! How do you answer those so quickly?" Archie asked. "I nearly never have to wait for someone else but I am nowhere near as fast as you are!"

"I don't know." Harry shrugged. "The answer just comes to me easily."

They ignored the curious and concerned looks given by the students, both older and younger, in the common room and quickly made their way up their dorm where they sat on Harry's bed. His pile of gifts followed and was dumped unceremoniously in between them and they started to go through them for any signs of a love potion.

"It's funny how you get all these gifts and I get nothing." Archie noted as he waved his wand over a particularly big chocolate box. Getting no response, he opened it and plopped a tasty-looking piece inside his mouth.

"I know." Harry agreed. "You should actually have a steady stream of gifts going since you are always sick in the head." That earned him a tofu thrown at his head which he deftly caught and put in his mouth.

"Hey, this is from a Slytherin first-year! We have barely been in school and you have already managed to charm the new students!"

"Seriously?" Harry asked in amazement. "I have been as much in the infirmary as outside it, and I don't remember talking to anyone from Slytherin yet, much less a first year."

"Well, people talk about you all the time." He checked the chocolate frog for anything suspicious and laughed when the box glowed a pale pink. "It is spiked with a love potion!"

Harry made a face. "Really? A first year? That's like my brother, disgusting."

It was tossed into the spiked pile, which was growing rather big. You would think that people were honourable but there was a surprising amount of people willing to enchant Harry to be with them. It had been a relief when he got together with Tonks last year. No one had dared to attempt anything in fear of her wrath. Tonks... He was snapped out of his thoughts by another question from Archie.

"So, you gonna tell me about yesterday?" He inquired with a worried look in his eyes.

"Oh, right!" Harry said and silently cast a few privacy charms, some that he had seen Dumbledore cast the day before. Archie raised an eyebrow in question but he didn't comment on it.

Then Harry jumped into explaining all of his battle with Voldemort and then his conversation with Dumbledore and Flitwick. Archie, being familiar with all of the muggle references Harry had made in his battle with Voldy could hardly contain his laughter when he got to his finishing move. Harry was almost worried that the silencing charms would break, but alas, they held strong.

Archie, who already knew of Harry's childhood and the night when Voldemort had attacked, was not too surprised by Harry's story. Well, not as surprised as a fourteen year old who didn't know all Archie knew would be anyway. He still got fairly blood-spread eyes and almost insisted on them returning to the infirmary. It took Harry a while to calm him down. Harry didn't really mind, though. It felt good to have someone care for him that much. For all Harry knew, there was only Archie and Daisy in the whole wide world who cared for him that much.

"So," Archie contemplated when Harry was finished with his story, "You just kicked the most dangerous wizard in the world's arse and now you are going to train your little spoiled brat of a brother so he will be able to do the same?"

"That sounds about right." Harry agreed.

"Well then!" Archie exclaimed and added after a moment. "Kamehameha? You couldn't have thought of a cooler muggle reference to make?"

"Hey! I was hard-pressed for time. It was the first thing that came to mind." Harry defended himself laughingly.

"You can answer the eagle's riddles in a second but when you are coming up with finishing moves, the first thing you can think of is Dragon Ball. What will I ever do with you?" Archie shook his head sagely.

"Well, what did you want me to use then?" Harry challenged his best friend.

Archie thought for a minute until he finally muttered, "I don't know. You are supposed to be the quick-witted one."

That earned him a spiked chocolate frog to the face which he caught with his mouth, quickly realizing his mistake. When Harry started laughing he grew all wide-eyed and quickly spit it all out at Harry who made a disgusting face. He checked the chocolate and found it to be an even paler pink than the one from the Slytherin first year. He sighed in relief. That meant it was weak enough for him to easily overcome with his Occlumency. After all, he was nearly as good as Harry in the area.

.

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was facing an enigma. Harry James Potter was so much more than just met the eye, and there was a lot that met the eye to that boy. Albus knew he was an incredibly skilled and powerful wizard, but he had no idea to what extent. He had thrown Albus out of his mind so fast that Albus hadn't had time to even get a glimpse of the boy's defences.

For a while he had been worried the boy would turn dark, but he seemed much too good for that. It was indeed praiseworthy how he had managed to stay such a righteous young boy despite his childhood. The only explanation Dumbledore could give was that the boy had found someone or something, that he could live for.

He had been more than surprised when he used love to vanquish the part of Voldemort's soul inside of him. For one, it had eliminated any worries for the boy turning dark. Someone capable of so much love, despite his circumstances, would be safe from the dark for at least some time. For the other, Albus hadn't known that muggles possessed a love beam. What was the incantation? _Ma-ke-he-ma-ha?_ He would have to look further into it.

Right now, the problem Albus was mulling over was Harry Potter's little brother. It had been shocking to find out that not only was Harry the Boy-Who-Lived, but there were two of them. Apparently, one cannot trust a prophecy too completely.

Albus had planned to have David Potter live a fun and exciting childhood fully without much worry until it was time for him to face Voldemort. Then he would sadly have to die. For Voldemort to meet his end, the part of him inside of David must die. After hours upon hours of chewing it over for years and years, that was the conclusion Albus had reached from the prophecy. But now, Harry had gone and destroyed his plans and Dumbledore can't really say that he was too sad for it. It meant that there was another way for them to destroy the Horcrux living inside of David. And if there was another way, Dumbledore would surely take it.

If the boy was anywhere near as talented as his brother then that would be a positive indicator. He would have to be well prepared in the arts of both the mind and body. Luckily, Poppy had overheard the brothers' conversation in the infirmary and she had reported it to Albus. Harry Potter's hands were indeed very capable, as he has shown so far in every aspect possible. If he will train his brother then that would be very well indeed. For now, Albus would lean back and observe. If he felt the need, he would eventually step in and take over the training, both of their training.

Albus turned to look at Fawkes who was sleeping.

"Fawkes," he called out, gently waking the phoenix. It trilled tiredly in response. "My old friend, I believe we have been quite mistaken about several things. Would you care to help me think this over?"

The phoenix trilled in agreement and made its way to sit on Albus shoulder. The Headmaster walked into his small library behind his office and sat down in one of the big and lush chairs. It had been placed there by his predecessor, who had been a fan of the fancy and luxurious.

Accompanied by his phoenix familiar Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore began to once again go over a certain prophecy. He would open his mind and attempt to look at it from every angle possible in hope to reach every conclusion possible. After all, it was impossible to prepare for what you didn't know.

.

"Alright, squirt. You ready?" Harry asked. "Now, before we begin, you must call me Master during our training sessions. Understood?" He said, struggling to fight down the grin attempting to break out. David looked at his brother insecurely but when Archie burst out laughing he realized the hoax. He gave his brother a mean look. "Alright, alright." Harry conceded. "Harry works just fine, too."

It was just the day after Harry's release from the infirmary. After visiting Poppy and she, reluctantly, affirmed that he showed no signs of relapsing they went to pick up David. Harry, a little proudly, found that his brother was in the library, working his way through the potions book. With him sat a grumpy-looking boy with red hair who seemed like he wanted to do anything but studying. Harry hadn't cared though. Without warning, he had grabbed David by the shoulders and whisked him off, much to the surprise of his brother and protests of his red haired friend.

Now, they were standing, in training clothes, next to the lake and doing some stretching exercises, preparing for the training itself. The weather was cloudy and slightly chilly making it not too hot but not too cold.

"Alright, brat. We will now run a lap around the lake to get warmed up." Harry said.

"What? A whole lap?" David inquired.

"Yes, that is about two and a half kilometres. It's not too far. For a squirt like you, with his baby fat still on, it should take around fifteen to twenty minutes."

"How long does it take for you?" David asked them both, preparing to be awed.

"We usually make it in eight to ten minutes, it depends." Archie said with a wave of his hand.

"What? That less than half my time!"

"We are in good shape." Harry shrugged. "As I said, you still got your baby fat."

David looked down at his body with a frown. He found that, while he was far from fat, he didn't exactly possess an athletic body either, especially not one such as his brother.

And so, they ran. Archie shot out ahead at an incredible speed. Harry also went ahead right next to his friend. After a few hundred metres he looked back over his shoulder and saw his little brother trying to catch up to them. Archie flashed a grin at Harry as he noticed he was slowing down.

"Go on ahead. I'll take care of the little git who can't think enough to balance his tempo." Harry waved Archie forward and stopped. Archie shrugged and continued running.

After a minute, David had finally reached Harry. He was panting heavily and leant down on his thighs to attempt to catch his breath.

"Are you an idiot?" Harry reprimanded him. David didn't answer though, he was too occupied with catching his breath. Although, he did listen. "You can't run with all you've got! You have to ration your energy so you can hold out for the entire distance. You have to think a little bit for yourself!" David nodded but was still having trouble to catch his breath. Harry became a little worried about his brother. "Here," he said and grabbed David's arms to lift them up over his head. "Hold your arms straight and take deep calm breaths." David did as told and after a minute he found that it was a much more effective way to recover his breath.

"Okay, then." Harry said. "Are you ready to continue? I'll tell you now, you can quit anytime you want, but if you quit once, there is no going back. If you are going to continue, I expect you to always do your best." Harry lectured his brother who was now listening intently. "So, how's it gonna be?"

"I want to do this!" David half-shouted.

"Good!" Harry grinned. "Now, let's go. I will run alongside you today so that you can get an idea of what your tempo should be, but it will only be for today. Understand?"

"Yes." David replied simply, preparing to take off again.

They started slowly with Harry all the time coaching his brother on how to get a steady breathing and running rhythm. Finally, after about fifteen minutes, they reached their starting point. David immediately fell down on the grass and raised his hands over his head, trying to catch his breath.

"What took you so long?" Archie asked upside down. He was doing an impressive handstand and was walking around. He winked playfully at the small group of spectators looking on. In response Harry sent some packed air at him wandlessly. "Hey!" Archie exclaimed.

"The little brat," Harry gestured to the form of his brother lying in the grass, "needed some help."

"How lucky for him, that his big and kind brother was there to help him, then." Archie teased and chuckled at the look Harry gave him. David had not missed the conversation and was looking at them weirdly.

Harry cleared his throat. "Let's continue."

They went through several physical exercises, not unlike the previous time. Obvious as it might seem, David was rather pathetic. Little did he know that Harry and Archie were equally bad in their first year. Not that they would ever tell him.

Finally, it was time for their sparring session. Archie had already gotten three wooden sticks and placed the needed charms on them while he was waiting for Harry and David to run around the lake.

"How can you stand to do this now?" David asked tiredly. "My body feels heavy as lead."

Harry looked at Archie who sighed and nodded.

"In a real battle, you might have to fight until you are exhausted. We want to press that scenario to its limits and beyond, so that when we have reached that point, we will still not be defenceless." Archie shrugged. "That's all there is to it."

"Just so," Harry agreed.

David thought for a second. "I guess I can see the logic in that." He admitted.

"Good. Now catch." Harry said and tossed one of the sticks towards his brother who, surprisingly, managed to catch it. He even seemed to surprise himself. Harry and Archie exchanged looks and Archie grinned widely.

"Alright." Harry began. "We are no master swordsmen and we will not pretend that we are. Our style of fighting is far from orthodox and we always attempt to try new things. What we know for sure, we have learnt from books." David raised his eyebrows in surprise but kept his silence, waiting for his brother to continue. "For today, it will probably be best if you just watch." David was about to protest but he was cut off before he could even begin. "You may try to replicate some of the moves, I guess, but it will be without a sparring partner. Later, I will give you a book on the basics of sword fighting and I will also try to find a book on teaching sword fighting. For now, it would be too dangerous and not very productive for us to attempt to teach you just like that. You should stretch before you get too cold." Harry said and then added as an afterthought. "You could keep a tally on who wins the most spars, if you want."

David, reluctantly, nodded his understanding and sat down in the grass, waiting expectantly for them to begin sparring. He saw how his brother and Archie use their terrain to try and gain any kind of advantage. It was like a dance with no pattern, a kick here, a spin there or a jab somewhere else. It was quite mesmerizing and David tried to drink it all in. One time, Archie made a backflip over Archie's swiping stick, much to the amazement of the spectators. At his antics, Harry had simply laughed, only to replicate the performance as well as bat his friend's stick out of his hands in a fluid motion. As he stood with his stick pointed at Archie's throat he sent a wave along with a flashing smile towards the spectators. Archie had only laughed at his childishness and gone to pick up his stick.

When the sparring session ended, David had been rather proud to announce that Harry, his brother, won the sparring matches, twenty-six to twenty-four. Harry gave him a book on the basics of sword fighting which he excitedly accepted. He quickly scurried off to read it, an unheard warning to not neglect his studies from his brother at his back, and left his brother and his friend behind to wrap up their training with their stretching.

"That went well." Archie noted to Harry.

"I guess." Harry shrugged. "It could have been worse." In fact, he had expected much worse. "He is a Potter, it's in his blood." He simply explained to Archie's laughing.

"So, Quidditch tryouts in the weekend?" Archie asked and Harry flinched.

"He is only a first year."

"You saw how he caught that stick from pure reflex! He could easily become Gryffindors new Seeker. And you know McGonagall will bend any rules she can when it comes to Quidditch." He insisted.

Archie was right, Harry realized. "I guess I will have to talk with my brother and tell him how I feel about the Seeker position." He said simply, a mean smile playing along his lips.

Archie just laughed and gathered his stuff up to then walk up to the castle. Harry quickly joined him. He was yearning for a long and warm shower until dinner which sadly wasn't so far away, he noticed.

This school year was only on the third full day and he had already broken up with the person he loved, been put into a magical induced coma, defeated Lord Voldemort, for some reason started training his little prat of a brother and told Dumbledore as well as Flitwick of his childhood. Well, it was certainly starting out interesting.

* * *

**AN:** Hi! I hope you enjoyed it! Please review and tell me what you think or if you have any questions or anything!


	6. Chapter 6

**AN:** Here you go! I hope you enjoy!

* * *

It was, late, far later than bedtime and they were still in the kitchen. Lily was sitting at the table, pen in hand and a piece of paper in front of her. James was pacing back and forth behind her, patient in his impatience. They could not rush this. He stopped and regarded his wife. At the moment she was chewing on the pen. She did that a lot when she was thinking hard. It was part of what he loved about her. It was a testament to how much time they had spent on this by how worn and chewed out the pen in Lily's hand was.

"It's done!" Lily suddenly exclaimed. "We finally did it!"

She was practically dancing as she leapt out of her chair and jumped onto James. Laughing, he swept her around in a circle, recalling scenes from their wedding day. That too had been a joyous day but for an entirely different reason. Today might be an even bigger day in the lives of James, Lily and, hopefully, Harry.

After all, it was always a sure thing that he and Lily would spend the rest of their lives together and, consequently, marry. Of course, it was one of the happiest days of his life, but it didn't really change anything between them. However, today might be the beginning of a great change. Today, they had finished their letter to Harry, their own son.

"Let's send it!" James urged his wife on and she nodded vigorously.

They hurried into the living room, eager to send the letter, only to be stopped by their daughter, their youngest child, Daisy, the child they had not neglected in favour of David. She was in her bedclothes and holding a teddy bear close in one of her arms, a teddy bear James had no idea where she had gotten it. In her other hand, she was holding an unopened letter. On her shoulder sat a proud and young bronze-coloured bird, Enzo, their family owl.

"Hey, Daisy," James called gently to the other girl his life revolved around, "I thought you said you were too old to have a teddy bear?"

She looked at the object in question fondly. "It was a gift from Harry, so I won't miss him."

James heart wrenched and his voice caught in his throat. Just what do you answer to that? They had not neglected Daisy, they thought, and yet they had somehow overlooked the time she spent with Harry, the love she felt for her eldest brother and, in turn, the love Harry felt for Daisy. Thankfully Lily had noticed his mishap and stepped in.

"That was very nice of him," she said and Daisy nodded vigorously, twisting the knife in James heart a little bit. "Is that letter for us?" She asked and pointed to the envelope in Daisy's hand.

Désirée looked down at the letter and handed it out to Lily. "It's from Da...vid." She said, failing to suppress a yawn in the middle of her brother's name. "Enzo brought it." She stroked the owl gently and it cooed silently at her touch.

"Thank you," Lily said. "James, could you put Daisy to bed?"

James, brought out of his painful musings, looked up to his wife and then down at his tired daughter.

"No! I want to hear what David says too!" Daisy protested although she didn't resist when James lifted her up. It wasn't often that happened now that she was eight years old. She had to grab every opportunity she got. Plus, she was obviously very tired.

James looked at Lily and shrugged. _Why not?_

They sat down on the big sofa in the living room, Daisy on James lap. Lily opened the letter and began to read out loud but was quickly stopped by James hand on her shoulder. Daisy had fallen asleep. He put a finger to his lips and lifted her up, careful not to wake her.

He put her to bed quickly, making sure she was properly tucked in, before tiptoeing out of her room and leaping down the stairs to Lily.

What he saw was not what he expected. Lily had gone all white and she was clutching the letter in her hands very hard while staring straightforward, seeing nothing. Hurriedly, James sat down next to her and put a comforting arm around her. He pried her fingers from the letter and proceeded to read it for himself, desperate to find what had put his wife in such a state.

First he didn't find it. David spoke of meeting new friends, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger and being sorted into Gryffindor. James let out a small relieved sigh. So far, so good, he thought. Apparently there had been some trouble with Snape on his first lesson but that wasn't more than expected. Then he came to the part where David began talking about his brother. It didn't seem so bad, at first. Sure, it hurt a little to learn things about Harry this way but it was not more than they deserved. James was not nearly as pale as Lily had become, at least not yet. Their eldest son was apparently extremely popular at Hogwarts, spent a lot of his time training with his best friend, a chaser on the _Ravenclaw _team and disliked the snitch in Quidditch. This one letter knew more about Harry than James and Lily together. It also seemed like David was spending some time with Harry and training with them. That was good, it meant that Harry could look past the unfairness he had been subjected to in the favour of David. Lastly, he got to the point where David spoke of his first impression of Harry, at the start-of-term feast. How he grew all scary and cold at the mention of their parents. If James wasn't pale before, he certainly was now.

"Maybe, we should spend some more time on that letter." He suggested to his wife.

Lily nodded solemnly, silent tears flowing down her pale cheeks.

.

David was walking out of another potions class. It hadn't been too bad, he had only lost ten points for Gryffindor and had actually been able to answer some of Snape's questions. It could have been much worse. It had actually started out much worse but his brother had urged him to read up on the Potions book and it had helped, a lot.

"Phew," Ron puffed light-heartedly. "That must have been the least bad lesson so far! Did you see the look on Snape's face when you answered correctly on the properties of Adder's Fork?" he asked excitedly and David nodded in amused agreement.

"Well, if you actually read the book you would find that the properties of Adder's Fork are listed in chapter five." Hermione, a bushy brown-haired girl walking in front of them, said knowingly while eyeing David appreciatively.

"Nobody asked you!" Ron blurted out, red-faced. David, however, refrained from saying anything at the hurt look on Hermione's face as she hurried off. "I swear, she is such a know-it-all!"

"Hey, Ron," David said, catching his friend's attention while switching . "I need to go, training with Harry, you know."

"Your brother is a mean git, David." Ron said exasperatedly, "and a _Ravenclaw._ I don't get why you train with him. Training with Gryffindors would be much better!"

David simply shrugged, "He's my brother," and hurried off.

There hadn't really been any training. It was cancelled in favour of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team's tryouts. David wanted to watch them and see his brother effortlessly, from what he had heard, keep his position on the team. As he made his way towards the Quidditch pitch he thought about the letter he had sent to his parents the day before. It was probably good that he hadn't mentioned the whole debacle of catching Neville's remembrall after Malfoy had thrown it and then declining McGonagall's offer of becoming the youngest seeker in a century. After listening to his brother's reasoning about the seeker position, he found that he would much rather be a chaser, or even a beater however unlikely that would be with the Twins in Gryffindor. Either way, his father would have a fit if he heard about it.

Once he got close enough to the Quidditch field he was met by a sight that caused him to stumble and almost fall until he somehow managed to catch himself. Bemused, he continued his walk towards one of the stands. He climbed up and sat down, trying to read _Basics of swordplay_ on his lap at the same time as watching the tryouts.

.

Harry was glaring at everyone but no one seemed to take any heed of it. That only caused him to intensify his glare. Archie, on the other hand, was looking rather amused. He kept looking as if he was holding down his laughter with a great deal of willpower. Harry glared at him too. It didn't help. Dora, their new captain, also seemed irritated while her brother and Kayce seemed mostly worried. Roger was simply standing there, mouth open and staring. Dora shot Harry a fierce look that clearly stated that she blamed him for this turn of events. Harry took it in, processed it and turned the same look towards Archie, who was shaking with silent laughter now.

The reason for the current state of the Quidditch team was the tryouts for the new seeker position and, if anyone proved better than the current line-up, the other positions as well. They had expected a few people to sign up, even going as far as many, but nowhere near had they expected this many. It seemed like the whole Ravenclaw house was standing in front of them. Even a few non-Ravenclaws were there, trying to melt in. The mass was bustling and shuffling, talking and laughing as if this was the norm except the frontline, they were looking towards the team expectantly. To top it all off, their Head of House, Flitwick, was also there. He was standing a little to the side of them with a smile rivalling that of Archie's. Apparently he liked to follow the major happenings in his house, especially the ones he thought were funny.

Dora, looking as if she shared Harry's urge to throttle Archie, finally had enough. She brought out her wand and with a flick, a loud bang washed over the masses of students, silencing as well as a silencing charm would have done. Everybody's attention was now on Dora.

"_Sonorus_," she muttered under her breath. "First of all, all non-Ravenclaws are to leave immediately!"

A few _damn it's _and other more inappropriate words were heard as a dozen or so students from all the other houses left the mass. Harry spotted his brother in one of the stands but he didn't comment on it and his brother didn't leave. He did send his brother one of his glares though.

"Next!" Dora's voice boomed. "All who wants to join only because they want to share a changing room with Harry will leave. Now!" Some disappointed muttering was heard as two thirds, mostly girls but a few boys could easily be spotted, of the mass left. TWO THIRDS! Harry did a masterful job of mimicking Roger as he was gaping at the students. He looked at Dora who had narrowed her eyes into slits. He looked back at the people who were left. There were still more than usual. "All who are here because they want to share changing room with anyone on the team will leave. Now!" Some more muttering and sighs were heard as most of the people still there left, mostly boys this time.

"What is wrong with people?" Roger whispered to Harry who could only nod in agreement. Archie looked like he was going to choke on his laughter and as it was right now, Harry wouldn't have saved him even if he begged.

There was now only a handful of people left. Among them was one second year, Cho Chang, two third years, Noe Chambers and Idell Fawcett, two from Harry's and Archie's year, Darnell Knight from their dorm and Thea Cecil from the girls, and lastly there was one sixth year, Roxanne Dubois. Probably because of their OWLs and NEWTs there were no fifth years or seventh years, except the ones already on the team, this was Ravenclaw after all.

"Next, the ones trying out for seeker, raise your hands." Dora announced, a lot more pleased than before about the number trying out.

Harry looked at the applicants curiously. It was no secret how he felt about seekers and it probably added to the pressure of trying out for the position. The ones trying out looked at Harry uneasily for a moment, except Cho Chang. Her hand shot up immediately as if there was never a doubt if she should play seeker. At the sight of being outdone by a second year, Noe's, Idell's and, surprisingly Darnell's hands were raised slowly. It came as more than a small surprise to Harry that his dorm mate aspired to be a seeker.

Dora nodded satisfactorily. "Good, it will be a simple competition. In the first round I will release two practice snitches and you will all compete to catch them. The two succeeding will face off in a final in which I will release them again. This time you will have to go separately and catch both of them. My brother will send some easy bludgers your way that you will have to dodge. The fastest one wins. If you take more than forty minutes, you're out." The applicants all nodded in understanding. Practice snitches were a little larger and moved in a more predictable pattern compared to the usual snitch, making them a bit easier to spot and catch.

Left of the ones trying out were Thea Cecil and Roxanne Dubois.

"What do you two want to try out for?" Dora asked. Roxanne wanted to be a beater while Thea wanted to be a chaser. "Great! Warm up, everybody, and we will get started." Dora commanded and they scattered, Roxanne with Dora and Daryl and Thea with Roger, Harry, Archie and Kayce.

Harry was busy balancing the quaffle on his index finger as Kayce went through the exercises they would do.

"Alright. Roger, get up in the rings. Let's start with some simple penalty shootouts."

And so they did.

Thea proved to be a pretty good chaser. While not as good as the current ones on the team, she would definitely earn her spot on the team after Kayce graduated. There seemed to be a similar situation with Roxanne for the beater position.

It was the seeker position that was the most interesting, however. After ten minutes of the first round they saw Cho suddenly shooting off straight through one of the hoops on the far side of the field. Shortly after, she slowed down and returned to the team, a little-larger-than-normal snitch tightly clasped in her hand. She wore a smug grin on her face as she landed and waited for the final.

Cho's quick catch seemed to unnerve the others greatly. Before, they could be scattered rather safely since there were two snitches flying around but now, they couldn't let each other out of their sights lest one of them catches sight of the snitch while too far away for the others to catch up. Thus, it was that they all flew around in an uncoordinated clump. Ten minutes later, Darnell, who had been discreetly inching away from the two third years, shot off in away from the others. His broom was too fast and the other's reaction time was too slow. It was an obvious and simple race for him to close the distance and elegantly snatch the snitch out of the air.

Now it was time for the final and Daryl, together with Roxanne, flew up to get ready to send some easy bludgers.

Darnell was the first one out. With a nod to Harry and Archie, he mounted his broom and took off, gaining height.

"Ready, set, go!" Dora bellowed and let the bludgers free, along with the two practice snitches.

It was an interesting scene to watch. Since the beaters would send the bludgers your way, even if they were not shot with full force as a safety measure, you couldn't stay too impassive and simply search for the snitches. You had to move around, dodge bludgers _and_ keep a lookout for the snitches. Once Darnell had got the hang of it, he seemed to be doing pretty well. He dodged the bludgers with minimal effort by shifting the broom slightly while still visibly searching for the snitches. After ten minutes, he caught the first one with a steep fifty foot dive and levelling up fifteen foot above ground, snitch in hand. He quickly made his way to Dora, handing the snitch over and setting out again. This time, they didn't have to wait as long. Only five minutes after he had caught the first one, he caught the second one. It had been on the opposite side of the pitch and he easily caught up to it, ending his tryout in fifteen minutes and forty-three seconds.

Harry would lie if he said that he wasn't impressed. Darnell seemed to be almost as good on a broom as Harry himself. He noted as much when Darnell landed next to him. Darnell gave him a thinking look.

"Other people than you go fly when they need to think, Harry." He said simply and turned his attention to Cho whose turn had just begun, leaving Harry thinking. After a while Harry shrugged and thought no more of it, turning his attention to Cho as well.

It was lucky that he did as he saw her maxing the speed of her broom and shooting off towards one of the stands. It was, actually, the stand where his brother was sitting, the brother who looked absolutely terrified as Cho Chang accelerated towards him. Several gasps were heard from the people around Harry and when he glanced towards Flitwick, he saw that the Professor had his wand out. Somehow, however, she stopped right in front of David, despite the crazy speed she was flying at, and reached out with her hand behind his head. When she drew it back, something gold was glistening in her hand. She quickly made her way to Dora and turned over the snitch at the impressive time of two minutes and eighteen seconds. She did not have as much luck with finding the second snitch however. Harry saw that she had a much bigger problem searching for the snitch while dodging bludgers at the same time. Although she seemed to have incredibly sharp eyes, she had problems doing two things at the same time. Not that Harry blamed her. Most people would probably have a much harder time than her in the same situation but it was evident that Darnell beat her there. As such, the time ticked away without much happening and once it had passed Darnell's time, Dora called them all down.

Cho looked a little disappointed but she got seemed to brighten up slightly as she, as well as Roxanne and Thea, heard that they were the first substitutes for their respective positions should they be needed.

It was getting rather cold and dinner was nearing, so Dora ordered them all to return to their dorms and shower there. Before they left, however, Dora approached Harry.

"You'd do well to have a talk with your brother about what he saw." She muttered under her breath. "You know who I will put the blame on if word gets out."

Harry blanched where he stood as Dora and the rest of the team made their way up towards the castle. He didn't really think that his brother would spy intentionally. Then again, his brother was a stupid Gryffindor with not much of a brain. Hurriedly, he walked towards the stand his brother was just coming out of.

"Hey, Harry!" David greeted him cheerfully.

"Shut up." Harry surprised his brother. "You will not tell anyone of what you saw here today."

"You think I was spying?" David's eyes widened.

"I don't think you are smart enough to be a spy." Harry snarled. "At least not a competent one."

Harry, feeling they had a rather strong team this year, whistled as he made his way towards the castle. Yes, they had a pretty good seeker that would probably catch the snitch against any opponent except perhaps Cedric, making Harry's role less important but he decided he would work on that. He didn't really care how many enemies he made. This year, the biggest thing he would accomplish was to ban the seeker position. At least in Hogwarts.

.

Harry goes to breakfast, feeling much better about Tonks but still sensitive subject. Talks about his training with his brother. Harry gets letter. Lots of feelings, mostly incredulity. Will end with him leaving the letter and storming out of the Hall to fly.

It was with a skip in his step that Harry walked down the long corridors of Hogwarts to the breakfast waiting for him in the Great Hall. Archie was skipping alongside him, being able to feel the same thing Harry did. Everything seemed to be going just fine. He was finally beginning to get over Tonks. The training with his little brother was progressing, although not fast but not slower than expected either. Classes were a breeze, Quidditch practice was a breeze. The only slight problem was that Darnell, the usually quiet and studious guy in their dorm, had become the new seeker. It gave for some tension in the room but Harry had grudgingly accepted it, not wanting to cause too much conflict. It wouldn't matter either way once he had managed to ban the seeker position anyway.

They reached the Great Hall with light hearts and immediately sat down opposite Viola Summer, - a mature fifth year, usually with her nose stuck in a book, not unlike most Ravenclaws - ready table to indulge in the fine breakfast that Hogwarts had to offer. Just as he was about to tug in, a majestic bronze owl caught his eye. Dismissing it for a letter to David, Harry sat to work on his toast. He would, nevertheless, be interrupted once more by the bronze owl since it hadn't gone to deliver a letter anything to David. Instead, it had elegantly landed on top of his goblet of pumpkin juice, causing it to fall over and spill out its contents over the plate of Viola Summer. She, among the other students close by, stared at the regal owl in front of Harry. It was truly a beautiful creature.

"Umm, I'm sorry." Harry mumbled but his attention was completely on the owl. Why would the family owl come for him? Perhaps it was a letter from Daisy. That reminded him, he hadn't written to her since the term began. She would not be happy.

Impatient, he quickly untied the letter from Enzo's leg. He was eager to read his sister's letter. She was, after all, the one person he loved the most in the world.

While absentmindedly feeding Enzo a sausage before the owl took off, Harry carefully opened his letter. It was, however, not from his sister. As he progressed through the letter he gripped it harder and harder. A hardness came over his eyes and he started to tremble. This had not gone unnoticed by Archie, nor Viola, although, it was more as if she had seen it by Archie noticing it.

"Harry, what's the matter?" Viola asked, her brown eyes wide as teacups.

"HOW DARE THEY!" Harry shrieked and stood up suddenly. He threw the letter up in the air and ripped out his wand. Heedless of the fact that the letter was straight in front of Violas surprised face, he took aim and sent out a string of fire towards the letter.

It never reached it. Archie had quickly cast a protego in front of Viola, coincidentally shielding the letter as well.

Frustrated, Harry threw his arms up in the air and ran out of the Great Hall, slamming the doors behind him, his breakfast forgotten. He took out his broom and quickly restored it to its original size, flying the last length of the corridor before hurtling out of the castle and into the air.

He really needed to fly.

.

The whole hall, although it was far from full since not all had come for breakfast yet, was staring at the door Harry had burst through not moments before. Archie, although he had managed to react in time, was left somewhat dumbfounded. What was in that letter that could cause Harry to storm off like that?

Realizing that in his haste to save Viola, he had actually saved the letter as well, Archie looked at the table in search for the letter. It was lying nicely on Viola's plate. He looked at the older girl in front of him with her big brown eyes.

"Umm," he said to grab her attention. "Could you... give me that?" He gulped slightly and pointed to the letter lying on the plate. There was something about Viola that he couldn't quite put his finger on.

She looked down at her plate and grabbed the letter wordlessly, slowly holding it out for him. As he attempted to grab it, however, it was deftly snatched from the tip of his fingers.

"What will you give me for it?" She asked playfully, fingering the letter and completely taking Archie by surprise.

"What?" He managed to get out, stunned.

"If you want this letter," she gestured with the letter in her hand to emphasize her point, "I want something from you."

"You want something from me?" Archie asked, incredulous. Viola nodded silently, a glint in her eyes. "Like what?"

"YoutakemeoutonthenextHogsmeadeweekend." She said in one breath, head held down.

"I'm sorry?" Archie asked confusedly, looking around at the other students. Most of them had gone back to their breakfast but a close few were watching them, especially Tricia Parsons, Viola's best friend, was watching them with a big smile on her face. Viola, on the other hand, took a deep breath and visibly prepared herself.

"I want you," she paused for a heartbeat, "to take me out on the next Hogsmeade weekend." She looked both satisfied with herself and worried as she occasionally glancing up at Archie, cheeks red as a rose.

Archie's brain was running on high. For being a Ravenclaw, he didn't feel very smart at the moment. He chewed on his thoughts, going over the past few moments carefully. Although Archie was no stranger to the opposite sex, it was always Harry that was the popular one with the girls. Archie knew that he was far from ugly and he did have a secret love for flirting, but he did it mostly as a joke, and most people knew it.

"You want to go out, with me?" Archie asked disbelievingly. "Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. Otherwise I wouldn't have asked you." She snapped, slight irritation showing in her eyes.

Archie almost laughed. "You call that asking?" But as her demeanour darkened he hastened to add, "I would love to take you out on the next Hogsmeade weekend." He was relieved to see her visibly brighten and a little embarrassed by her obvious show of affection. He was definitely not used to this. "Thank you." He mumbled as he accepted the letter from her. She, on the contrary, seemed to quite enjoy his humbleness. He was definitely not acting like himself.

Tearing himself away from her big eyes, he desperately turned his attention instead to the letter in his hand. He almost wished he hadn't. He stood up, surprising Viola and her friend, and looked around the Great Hall. The target was present. Hurriedly, he made his way towards the Gryffindor table.

Behind his back he could hear Viola ask her friend, "What _was_ in that letter?"

Approaching the target, he grabbed him by the arm and, ignoring the protests from him and his ginger friend, dragged him out of the Great Hall into the closest accompanying corridor and pressed him to the wall.

"Ouch! W-what are you doing?" David exclaimed, a mixture of fear and anger evident in his voice.

"This!" Archie thrust the letter into the face of the insolent boy that he shared no love with. "Why has your parents contacted Harry all of a sudden? Why do they think that they can reconcile with him after ten years of neglecting him?"

"I-I don't know!" David panicked. He grabbed the letter and hastened through it, eyes wide.

"What did you write to them?" Archie asked darkly.

"I don't know!" David explained. "Normal stuff, like how he is so popular and all that!"

"Listen to me, you little wanker." Archie spat out. "Do not tell them anything about Harry. Nothing! You understand? They have no right to know anything about him! Not after what they have done to him." He was breathing heavily at this and some students on their way to breakfast had stopped to observe the best friend of the brother to the Boy-Who-Lived seemingly bully said boy.

"B-but why? They're our parents!" David exclaimed as if that gave them every right.

"They may be your parents but they are no parents to Harry. I will not accept them as such unless they come here and publicly apologize to him in front of the whole school." Archie let go of the Brat-Who-Lived, leaving him to sag down to the floor, and walked towards the Great Entrance, taking out his broom as well. Harry and he were pretty alike, or maybe that was just because they spent so much time with each other. Kind of like Harry's discussion with the sorting hat, was it nature or nurture?

If one was perceptive enough one would hear him mumbling something along the lines of 'pathetic,' 'how dare they,' 'they have no right,' and 'with just a simple letter? Pha!' But for better or worse, no one was.

Either way, Archie really needed to fly.

* * *

**AN:** There you go! I hope you enjoyed! This will probably be the last chapter until after the 18th of May when my exams end!

Please review if you have questions, opinions, simply want to comment on something, want encourage me or anything else you can come up with! Everything is greatly appreciated!


	7. Chapter 7

**AN:** I AM BAAAAACK! Finally done with the IB and it feels wonderful! For those of you wondering, I think it went pretty well. A congratulatory pat on the back would be very much appreciated if you feel like giving one!

Anyway, here is the next chapter! I hope you enjoy and thought it was worth the wait!

* * *

It was a beautiful day. The sun kept blinking through the occasional cloud that obstructed its rays and the inner courtyard was bustling with students. Unsurprisingly, none of them saw Harry sitting in the Transfiguration classroom, gazing longingly to get out. He just wanted to relish in the few warm days that were left for them before the grey and bitter weather which was such a trademark for Britain came back to terrorize them. He also wanted to have someone to relish them with, other than Archie who, to his amusement and growing irritation, had been distracted the last few weeks. He longingly gazed at a couple sitting on a bench at the far end of the courtyard, absorbed in their private little world.

"Mr. Potter!" A harsh voice jerked him back to the present. "For the last few weeks you have spent most of your time in my class but staring out the window. I trust it is because you have already mastered the assignment?" Minnie said sternly, giving him a reproachful look, although it looked a little forced.

Harry sighed loudly, earning him another look while he felt a tug on the corner of his lips. He brought out his eleven inches wand made of holly with a phoenix core, a beautiful thing and one of his most trustworthy companions.

Realizing that several of his classmates were now watching him he sighed again, making sure that the Professor heard him. Nonchalantly he made the necessary wand movements and the object, a teacup, successively turned into a tortoise, a rather cute one if he may say so himself. It was actually third year curriculum but they were doing some quick revision to make sure that they could move on to the next stage. Either way, it was still far from expected of him to be able to do so silently. Unsurprisingly, the gasps full of surprise soon followed. Really, how could it be surprising when it wasn't…well… surprising!

"Meet me after class, Mr. Potter." McGonagall said, seeing that he nodded in confirmation before turning her attention expectantly to another student, the Slytherin beater as it happened. "Mr. Derrick, well, what are you waiting for?"

The rest of the class was a blur as Harry spent it gazing out the window. Once, he chanced a look at Archie who had a disgustingly dreamy look plastered onto his face. If Harry had to take a lucky guess he would say that it was because of a certain Viola Summers and if the sometimes slightly reddening of his friend's cheeks was anything to go by, Harry would also guess that the thoughts were nowhere near decent. That's all that Archie has been able to think about as of late and, to Harry's horror, talk about. Viola this, Viola that. Harry was really looking forward to the next Hogsmeade weekend if only to get Archie off his back for some time. Actually, when he thought about it, the next Hogsmeade weekend was this weekend, in two days. It felt like no time had gone at all since that damnable letter a few weeks ago, probably because Archie kept babbling about the same thing. He wasn't that bad with Tonks, was he? No, no one could ever be as bad Archie.

"I'll wait for you outside." Archie said and brought Harry out of his daydreaming as he went to join the file leading out of the classroom. As soon as they had exited, Harry took his things and went up to the desk Minnie was sitting at, sorting some papers.

"You wanted to see me, Mi… Professor." Harry managed to catch himself in time. Although he suspected that she secretly liked it, he did not want a repeat of last year. He shivered at mere thought of it. How Sirius managed to stay unhurt every time eluded Harry. On second thought, Sirius _didn't_ get away unscathed every time, far from it actually, all the more reason for Harry to take it easy. That was another goal Harry had for his stay at Hogwarts, be able to call the stern Transfiguration Professor Minnie without any repercussions. It was probably the most difficult ones. Well, maybe pushing Dumbledore into the lake qualified to be up there as well.

"…er. Mr. Potter." McGonagall snapped with her fingers in front of his face making Harry blink a couple of times before refocusing on McG. "You seem to drifting off quite a lot. Are you sure you are alright?"

"Yes, sorry about that, Professor." Harry apologized. "It's just… it's Archie, as a matter of fact." He said, obviously startling the Professor. She wasn't expecting that!

"Mr. Mimosa?" She asked curiously. "What's wrong with him?"

Now came the fun part. "Well, you see, Professor. He is in love."

"With Ms. Summers, I think?" Minnie said with a knowing smile, surprising Harry this time. She must have noticed because she smoothly added, "Oh, we notice a lot more than you think, Mr. Potter. Back to the matter at hand, what does that have to do with you losing touch with reality?" She ended with narrowing her eyes.

"Well, you see, all he can talk about is Viola this, Viola that, look how pretty Viola is, imagine Viola in a bathing suit, imagine Viola _without_ a bathing sui…"

"Mr. Potter!" McGonagall exclaimed, her cheeks slightly tinted red. Harry had to fight hard to keep up his perfectly Sirius face (pun intended). "Get to the point."

"Sorry, Professor, I was just getting there. Since Archie can only talk about Viola, I have begun to tune him out to be able to think straight and I guess it has become a habit." Harry explained. All in all, he was rather satisfied with the excuse and it wasn't even a lie!

"I see." Minnie said simply. "Well, see to it that you break this 'habit'."

Harry smacked his feet together and saluted her. "Yes, ma'am!" He could no longer keep the grin off his face when he saw that McGonagall wore a small satisfied smile herself.

"Good." She said contently.

"Was that all, Professor?" He asked, getting ready to leave.

"No, Mr. Potter." She interjected before he had time to turn to the door. "I wanted to ask you a question." Harry nodded to show that he was listening. "Do you at all feel challenged by the level of the class work at this moment?"

"No, Professor." Harry answered immediately, although he was a little taken aback by the question, his Ravenclaw hunger for knowledge sparked to life and quickly took control. McGonagall smiled slightly at the eagerness in his eyes.

"I assume that it is the same for all classes?" She asked and he nodded. "Good, what would you say about doing more advanced studies beyond the fourth year syllabus?"

"I would love to, Professor." Harry answered eagerly allowing for a full-blown smile to grace the professor's features.

"Excellent!" She said and took out a pair heavy-looking books from the top drawer in her desk. "This is OWL-level material for Transfiguration. I will inform the other teachers and they will supply you with the same. Hopefully, you will be able to take your OWLs with the fifth years." Harry's eyes were glittering with the excitement he was feeling. He hadn't thought of asking the teachers to further his studies before, which was quite stupid of him, actually. But if he had come this far, maybe he could push it a little further.

"Actually, Professor, I am already ahead of OWL-level on my own…" He trailed off as he saw McGonagall's shock. She quickly regained her posture, however. Really, she just saw him do something on NEWT-level and she still act surprised that he is beyond OWL-level. It is interesting how they expect him to be the best and most advanced but still act surprised when he shows it.

"In all of your subjects?"

"Yes," Harry nodded but then added thoughtfully, "except Potions, I guess. I am up there with the theory but I haven't actually tried brewing most of the potions beyond OWL-level."

"How is it possible that you are so far ahead?" She asked curiously.

"Potter manor as well as Sirius has an extensive library and so does Hogwarts. I started young. What more do you need?" He shrugged.

She nodded approvingly and muttered just loud enough for him to hear. "I see. Filius will no doubt be insufferable once he hear it. Exemplary Ravenclaw behaviour."

"So, will I get even more advanced material, Professor?" He asked hopefully. She looked up at him and gave a small shake of her head, quickly dropping him into a pit of disappointment.

"Let us make sure you have your OWLs covered first, Mr. Potter." She said and offered him a ladder out of the pit, a ladder full of assignments and challenges every step of the way, as he would come to see. He wouldn't have it any other way. "If you are as far ahead as you say you are, you should have no problem with showing us so. You will receive assignment upon assignment from all of your teachers, we want to make sure that you haven't missed anything in your... self-training. Despite, revision is never bad." She said academically. "We expect nothing but the best from you, Mr. Potter. Are you up to the task?"

"Yes, Professor!" He nodded vigorously.

"You will still have to take your OWLs by the end of spring term, no matter how much further you are in your work." She gave him a calculating look.

"Yes, Professor!" He chimed happily.

"You are dismissed." She said curtly but Harry managed to catch the glint in her eyes as she bent to pick out some essays from the bottom drawer in her desk. He began to make his way out of the classroom but when he opened the door he chanced a look back at the Professor. Should he do it? Of course, he should. It was too tempting to not do it.

"Thank you, Minnie!" He yelled and hurried out the room, slamming the door after him. Outside he saw Archie leaning against a wall with a dreamy look on his face. "Come on!" He shouted as he ran past his friend, grabbing his arm in the process.

"Wha..." Archie managed to say before he was jerked along. They managed to round a corner before they heard a door slam from the direction of the Transfiguration classroom. Harry could almost imagine Hogwarts groaning. That must have hurt, even for a castle. They continued running until they were safely outside the Ravenclaw entrance. "What...was...that?" Archie managed to get through his panting. He seemed really shaken up, almost worried.

"I... called... her Minnie." Harry panted back with a wide grin that was now reciprocated by Archie after his initial shock. Harry was ecstatic. He had managed to call her Minnie without any repercussions, for now, but in his mind he knew that it didn't really count. He could hit and run anytime. The real challenge would be to call her that and she would accept it just as she accepted the Headmaster using Minerva. Still, maybe it would be a technique to ease her into it.

"Nice going mate." Archie commented and clapped him on the back. Of course, he was in on the whole thing as well.

"As always," Harry said smugly and Archie rolled his eyes insufferably. He then turned to the eagle knocker. "Riddle please."

"If you don't keep track of me, an outsider you will be. Constant though I change when there's need. You guess and may succeed. What am I?" The eagle knocker sang in its melodious voice.

"Password." Archie chimed before Harry got the chance. "See? I can do it too!" He said and stuck out his tongue towards Harry.

Just as he got into the common room they were approached by a girl in their year, Cai Li, a short Chinese girl with long black hair and a pretty face, she had a little sister who also got placed in Ravenclaw. Cai was probably the most competitive person in the school. She was steadily placing second after him in class with Archie a close third, something that irked her to no end. He wondered how she would take the news of him taking his OWLs a year early.

"Hi, Harry!" She greeted him with a small blush. First name, huh? She usually used Potter. Harry looked down at her and then at Archie who was walking backwards away from him with a wide grin on his suddenly very ugly face. It seemed that he had found Viola.

"Hi, Cai?" Harry responded questioningly. Her blush deepened a little and she turned her face to the ground. Harry felt that he could guess where this was going.

"You see, I was wondering... whether you had a date for the Hogsmeade weekend yet." She said with a tiny voice.

"That's interesting." Harry answered and her head shot up in confusion. "Was that all?" He asked and then made as if to go.

"What? No, don't go!" She squeaked and grabbed his robe. Then she turned red as a tomato by what she had done and jumped back in slight panic. Frankly, it was adorable.

"Why? You want to ask me something?" He inquired expectantly, tapping his foot. He was definitely not above having a little fun now and then. Well, was he ever? She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Don't play smart with me!" She hissed, knowing full well what he was doing.

"Alright, I guess I'll go." He said and turned around. It was a repeat of the previous scene, although this time she didn't let go of him. He turned back around with a smile, knowing how it made her feel. "Yes?"

"Would. You. Go. To. Hogsmeade. With. Me." She said through clenched teeth and muttered something under her breath that sounded suspiciously a lot like 'insufferable handsome git'. Going by the fierce expression on her face, one would rather think she was threatening him than actually asking him out on a date.

Now came the more difficult part. The answer. Harry thought about it for a short while. Cai wasn't the first person to ask him to Hogsmeade and he had rejected all the others. Why? Because they made him think of Tonks and he would immediately feel bad and guilty. But now? He searched in both his heart and mind and found that he still did love Tonks, but not in the same way. She would probably always have a place in his heart as his first real love, but did he want to get back together with her? As things stood right now, no, not really. Cai was a really pretty girl. She was smart, witty, and unbelievably fun to tease. It certainly wouldn't hurt to try.

"I take it that is your answer then." She said a little downheartedly. Suddenly Harry realized that he had been spacing out again. Silently cursing himself he grabbed Cai's hand.

"My lady." He said with a flourishing bow that would make Sirius proud. He then bent down to kiss the back of her hand. "I would love to go to Hogsmeade with you. Noon at the gates?" He asked and looked up at her burning face. The reddening of her cheeks really brought out her eyes. They were deep purple, fit for drowning in.

She nodded, looking as if she was entranced by him but that quickly changed when a whistle could be heard from the other side of the room. Of course it was Archie and he was holding two thumbs up in his seat next to Viola. Harry looked around and saw that nearly the whole common room was watching them, a lot of them with dreamy eyes at the scene playing out before them. Cai must have noticed as well. She murmured her goodbyes and a 'see you later' before leaving for her dormitory.

Harry, on the other hand, ignored the dreamy onlookers and walked instead over to Archie. Instead he thought that today he had done a lot of things that would make Sirius proud, excluding the thing about furthering his studies. Sirius would never accept that.

"Hey, Viola." He acknowledged the girl with the big brown eyes and turned to his love struck friend. "Archie, I'll take a nap, wake me up for dinner will you?"

Needless to say, by dinner, the news of Harry having a date to Hogsmeade would have spread throughout the school.

.

It was with a sigh that Minerva closed the door to her classroom. She was positive she had glimpsed them turning a corner at the far end of the corridor but she was in no mood to give chase today. The nerve of that boy! It was a wonder how he was so similar to James and yet so similar to Sirius. Not that the two were entirely different (they were like two peas in a pod!), but for someone who knew them well enough, they would notice the differences and, disregarding appearance, Harry James Potter was definitely more similar to Sirius. Calling her Minnie was definitely something Sirius put him up to. She would have a serious talk with that dog of a man the next time she saw him!

She sighed and sat down tiredly in her chair, not feeling up to the task of correcting the sixth years' essays. How Harry Potter could be so dangerously infuriating one moment and overwhelmingly charming the next confounded her. He was the worst as well as the best student. Often times she simultaneously found herself split between giving out detentions and awarding points. And to her discredit, she often gave in to the later option.

He was like a combination of Lily, James and Sirius... Wait, she came upon herself. He was _literally_ a combination of Lily, James and Sirius. How she regrets approving that relationship now. If only she had known what a devastating result it would bring. She could only hope that their other kids had not turned out the same, only jokingly of course.

Harry somehow always appealed to her weak side, and knowing of his difficult childhood certainly played a factor in it. Oh, yes. Having the relationship she had with her former students it would have been impossible to miss. It was a wonder Albus had missed it, although he seems to have had a change of heart recently in the matter. She should have given the couple a real stern talking to first thing, but when she finally came around to it, it was too late and they simply shrugged off everything she said.

Luckily, or perhaps _unluckily_, Sirius had been there for the boy, though he seemed to be taking care of himself a lot anyway and even declined the offer to move in with his godfather. Knowing all that she did, whenever she saw Harry, her maternal instincts made it impossibly difficult to punish him. There always came something in between, like wasn't he punished enough already? Hogwarts seemed to be the place where he could relax the most and just be himself. He could thoroughly _enjoy_ himself here and, as far as she saw it, he did. So different from the lonely sad boy yearning for his parents' attention she would see every time she visited James and Lily. Here he could smile freely and his smile made her want to smile. How could she take that away from him? No, she would do everything in her power to make his stay at Hogwarts be nothing short of the best.

Minerva McGonagall would normally pride herself on not playing any favourites amongst her students in all of her long career as a Professor. She knew that, when it came to judging academically, she was impeccable. But when it came to enforcing discipline she might just be forced to admit to being slightly partial in the case of Harry Potter. And if she was, who could really blame her? It would be the first time, and probably the last, it would happen.

.

"Harry! Harry!" The annoying voice of his little brother drifted towards them.

"What do you want, David?" He asked impatiently to his little brother running up to him.

"I just wanted to ask you to buy me some candy from Honey..." David began.

"Not happening." Harry gave his little brother a blank look and then climbed up the wagon to join Cai.

"What! B-but, why?" David asked, visibly surprised by his brother's outright refusal.

"Why should I?"

"You are my brother!"

"Exactly." Harry said with finality. "Now run along, snotnose, so that we can leave."

David wisely kept silent and walked away with his shoulders slumped as the carriage began to roll towards Hogsmeade. There were only Harry and Cai in the carriage, consequently it was impossible for him to miss Cai's rather pointed look, as if she was trying to figure him out.

"Sorry about that." Harry waved his hand offhandedly towards the constantly getting smaller castle.

"Was that really necessary?" She inquired. "He is only eleven."

"What? It was no matter." Harry said. "You know, you look really pretty today. Dressing up for me?" He grinned, partially due to her slight blush and partially due to his successful changing of topics. It was no lie either. She did look really pretty with her black hair let out of its usual braid and a light blue sundress.

"Yes," she slipped out before she caught herself and her blush deepened. Nevertheless, she must have had some kind of sixth sense because she caught onto what he was doing. "Harry..." She warned.

"Yes, sweetie?"

"Why do you behave like that towards him?"

"Look." Harry turned serious. "Could we just leave my family problems to be exactly that, _my_ family problems?"

After a while she nodded but Harry could hear her mutter under her breath, "He obviously looks up to you."

"What was that?"

"Nothing." She quickly yapped. "You know, you aren't looking so bad yourself." It was now Cai's turn to change topics and Harry willingly obliged.

Harry found the date to be surprisingly pleasant. They were supposed to meet Archie and Viola by the Three Broomsticks in a few hours and they spent the timed until then talking and walking through Hogsmeade, visiting some of the stores and ignoring the looks and whispering of the many other students present in the village. A little surprisingly, Cai was pretty easy to talk to. They talked some about school work but not nearly as much as Harry had expected (of course, Harry wisely neglected to mention his agreement with McGonagall). Otherwise, they talked about all sorts of things like Quidditch, muggle technology, future dreams, anything really. Once, Harry tried to drag her into Madam Puddifoot's teashop but a furiously red Cai threatened to curse him if he forced her even one step closer to the place. As the date progressed, Harry felt closer and closer to Cai.

Right before they were to meet Viola and the starstruck Archie, Harry brought Cai into Honeydukes, the store without equal when it came to wizards sweets.

"I thought you weren't supposed to buy anything for your, what was it, 'snotnose' of a brother?" Cai asked knowingly with a smirk.

"I'm not buying this for him but for _me_." Harry growled defensively. "Did it perhaps cross your mind that I also like candy?"

"Must be a Potter thing." Cai shrugged while Harry walked around the store, choosing a variety of sweets. Harry picked out chocolate frogs, chocoballs, cauldron cakes, fudge flies, ice mice, nougat chunks, fizzing whizzbees, sugar quills and while he was on it he also picked out a heart shaped lollipop for Cai, feeling a little cheesy. As he approached the counter, he heard Cai mutter sarcastically behind him, "Sure you gonna have _all_ that candy for yourselves," but he pointedly ignored it. Well out of the candy shop, Harry flamboyantly offered her the heart shaped lollipop and she graciously accepted. Thus, with hooked arms, they made their way towards the Three Broomsticks where Archie and Viola were waiting.

"Hey, what took you so long?" Archie wiggled his eyebrows childishly towards Harry. Instead of acknowledging him, Harry turned to Viola with a gentlemanly bow.

"Good day, Viola. Mighty fine day, isn't it?" He greeted her and walked past them with Cai, who waved a greeting with a flashy show of teeth.

"Hello, Harry. Hi Cai." Viola smiled pleasantly in return. She sneaked a glance at Archie who looked slightly miffed at being ignored but she grabbed his hand, quickly alleviating his mood, and dragged him in to the Three Broomsticks.

The couples sat down opposite each other at a table for four near the window and ordered some butterbeer. Harry learned that Viola's father actually was a designer at a broomstick company, although she wouldn't say which. From there, the conversational topic inevitably turned to Quidditch centred on the British and Irish League. Harry couldn't help but notice how Cai increasingly crept closer, leaning on his arm. He wasn't sure what he thought about it but he decided that he really didn't mind. Going by Archie's lecherous grin, he hadn't missed it either. The boy was much too observant to Harry's liking. Viola had also seemed to notice but most of all, she had noticed Archie noticing.

As Harry watched, Viola got a mischievous glint in her eyes and she leaned in to whisper something in Archie's ear who, after smiling as if he had just won the World Cup, immediately turned to snog the life out of her, something she happily returned. The situation turned rather awkward for Harry and Cai. He noticed her looking up at him with something that he couldn't quite place but as soon as she saw him looking at her she looked away, red cheeks and all. Harry couldn't help but laugh at it all. His deep laugh made the snogging pair break away from each other, albeit a bit reluctantly, and once they took in Harry's deep laughter and Cai's red cheeks they readily joined in.

After that and a couple too many a butterbeer, the mode turned quite flirty. Sometime, Harry had no idea when, his arm had found its way around Cai's small shoulders and stayed there, holding her close to him.

The mood kept going as they made their way back to Hogwarts, talking about trivialities such as what foods they liked. Once they reached the gates, Archie and Viola rather hurriedly excused themselves and made their way quickly up to the castle. Left were Cai and Harry. He helped her down from the carriage so they stood facing each other.

"So..." He said, at a lack for anything better.

"So..." She repeated, looking up at him expectantly. He was definitely right in his judgement before. Her eyes were perfect for drowning in. They reminded him of someone else's eyes, no, it would be disrespectful to think of her now.

"I should probably go with the extra candy to my brother." He trailed off into those eyes, not even noticing the smug look she had since he had admitted to buying the candy for his brother.

"You probably should." She agreed although none of them moved away. Instead, they moved closer to each other. Harry felt his hands unconsciously circling around Cai to the small of her back. How did that happen? He felt her arms around his neck. Moving at an excruciatingly slow speed they approached each other. She had closed her eyes. He could feel her warm breath on his lips only centimetres away. She smelled sweetly of lavender. He liked it. Just before their lips touched, he saw a person he would recognize anywhere. Tonks. In the corner of his eye, he saw her staring at them and then turn away and run towards the castle, depressive blue hair fluttering in the wind. He froze. What are you doing? He could hear his screaming for him to move again but he ignored it. He was always one to rather follow his heart than head. Very un-Ravenclaw of him but something that Sirius appreciated, and taught. He brought his hands up to the arms Cai had around him and gently removed them. She opened her eyes, clearly confused.

"I'm sorry, Cai." He said and took a step back. He could feel a headache coming and closed his eyes, bile rising in his throat.

"Harry?" He opened his eyes again. Her voice was weak and she looked hurt. He could see tears forming in her eyes. It made the headache even worse.

"I'm sorry." He repeated and ran towards the castle, trying to dispel the image of a near crying Cai in his head.

He hoped that Tonks hadn't run off to the Hufflepuff common room but knowing her, she probably hadn't. He thought he knew where she was and made his way to the library, the place where they had first met. He went to the absolute back of the library and into one of the little more private study rooms. Unsurprisingly, she was there. Sitting in the corner of the dark room was a huddled up Hufflepuff girl with hair shifting from blue to purple. She had her arms around her knees and she was rocking back and forth, shaking with the occasional sob.

He felt the warm wave of emotions washing over him, welcoming every single one of them. It didn't feel exactly as it had done before but she was still very important to him. He walked over to her and sat next to her. It wasn't until he put a comforting arm around her that she noticed his presence. She immediately flinched back and his heart contracted painfully.

"Why are you here?" She asked with watery eyes. They were a deep blue at the moment, like the sea.

"I...I...Nymph," He didn't know what to say. He wasn't usually one to be speechless but it happened on rare occasions. She steeled herself visibly.

"Harry, you should go back to that girl. She was very pretty." She said, shuffling away from him.

"She is." Harry agreed. "But it didn't feel right."

"Harry." She said warningly.

"I know, Nymph. but I couldn't just leave you." Harry explained. "Not when you looked like that."

"I'm sorry." She cried. "I thought I was over it, but seeing..." Her voice broke. "I have no right, Harry. You shouldn't be here."

"I know." Harry said and stood up. "But you are my friend." Tonks head flew up and she gave off a small smile which he returned full power.

"How often are you comforted by the person you broke up with?" She laughed slightly and Harry joined her. "You are far too good for me, Harry." Her mood seemed to have returned. "Friends?" She asked sceptically.

"You know that's not true, Nymph." Harry argued. "Friends." He held out his hand. Nothing else needed to be said. She understood and took his hand. He pulled her up and, a little hesitantly, gave her a short hug.

With a wave of her wand she conjured up a napkin and dabbed at her cheeks.

"You missed a spot." Harry teased and gestured at her nose. She just laughed and swatted playfully towards him. Harry suddenly felt very light-hearted, like a huge weight he hadn't noticed was lifted off of him. He couldn't help but feel a very large smile splitting his face. He glanced to at Tonks and saw her looking like he felt.

Together, they made their way out of the library and down towards the Great Hall. The few students they passed mostly stared at them with shocked expressions. It was clear as day what they all thought. 'Wasn't Potter supposed to have gone out with the older Li sister?' One of the younger ones darted ahead of them to the Great Hall, no doubt to spread the rumour of them being back together before they managed to get there.

They reached the Great Hall without any real disturbance, however as soon as they were noticed, all eyes turned to them, the same thought as before evident. Harry looked for Cai. He thought he saw her at the end of the Ravenclaw table with Archie and, of course, Viola. She was the only one facing away from them.

"So, is it official then?" Someone shouted. "You two back together?" There were a few sharp intakes of breath as the student body as one leaned in to hear the answer.

Tonks and Harry stood silent for a while, playing on the suspense, until Tonks couldn't hold it in anymore. Her hair changed to a bright pink as she began to laugh and soon Harry joined in.

"No," she proclaimed loudly. "We are just friends. Harry is up on the free market." She laughed slightly at the sceptic looks everybody was giving them. "If anybody wants advice on how to capture Harry's heart, you are more than welcome to come to me. I have more than a few stories you could use for blackmail." She skipped happily towards the Hufflepuff table as the Hall laughed at Harry's now pale face. It didn't help his expression that one of the Slytherin students, Gwen Ballard, had immediately approached Tonks and began to ask some serious questions, nodding thoughtfully at Tonks rather animated answers.

"She might as well have brought a notebook." Harry muttered and made his way to where Archie, and ultimately, Cai sat. To his chagrin, one of the Ravenclaws, Hanna Simons in Harry's year, heard his comment and with a wicked smile quickly took out a notebook and made her way to Tonks. Trust a Ravenclaw to always have an extra notebook on. Hanna Simons also happened to be one of Hogwarts worst gossipmongers. No doubt she would allow others to copy the notes. At least the greater part of the students was returning to their normal dinner routines.

It was rather hesitantly that he sat down next to Cai, but she didn't look at him. He sighed and Archie gave him a smile along with an unspoken question.

"It's over." Harry said simply and . "Although I still love her, it is as a friend. I am utterly and completely over her." He said that a little more loudly and he wanted to and the rumour mill did its job. In a matter of a minute it had reached Tonks. She caught his eye and waved with an evil smile before gesturing for the small group of girls hanging onto her every word to lean in closer. Harry groaned slightly at the thought of what she might say but figured there was really nothing he could do about it.

"Good for you, Harry." Viola said and gave him a small smile. Harry returned it and focused his attention on Cai who was pushing around a piece of fish on her plate.

"You know, you shouldn't play around with your food. Fish is supposed to make you smarter, although, I guess I guess you'd have to eat a lot more than that if you want to compete with me." He teased, earning himself an irritated huff from the girl. She tried to elbow him but he efficiently caught her arm and twisted her so that she was facing him, being careful that he didn't hurt her in the process. She looked up him in the eye defiantly. "Hey, I'm sorry I ran away from you." He took a closer look at her and saw that the skin around her eyes looked irritated. He sighed, "I had a really good time today, but I wasn't ready, am still not ready, and I had to do go after her." He started explaining in a hushed voice that only Cai would hear about what had happened earlier in the library and the relief he had felt after the weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Archie would also get to know, but not now as it would be impossible to tell him without others listening in.

"Fine, but you owe me a new date." She finally said after listening intently to his explanation. She then took her plate and leaned it onto Harry's so that the fish fell over to his. "And you'd better eat this cause this year I'll be taking that first spot!" She then arrogantly upped and left, leaving a laughing Harry and Archie behind.

She would be so mad when she found out he would be taking his OWLs this year.

.

It was late at night and Harry was on his way to Gryffindor tower. Among all the commotion he had forgotten to give David the candy he had and so, he found himself doing so now, not being able to sleep. It would have been much easier if he had the invisibility cloak David doubtlessly had received from their father but at least he had the Marauders Map. That had been one of the first things he had done when he got to Hogwarts in his first year. Sneak into Filch's office and find the drawer marked "Confiscated and Highly Dangerous" where he had been able to nick it. Honestly, having Sirius as a Godfather gave him far too many advantages over the other students, even the Professors. Now he was walking along one of Hogwarts many corridors on the fifth floor. The paintings were all sleeping so they wouldn't report him. They usually didn't anyway. If anything, they encouraged and appreciated a little mischief. Harry didn't blame them. He could hardly imagine how dull and boring it would be to hang in a corridor for centuries with only the occasional pranker here and there to space things up.

He came to a stop as a fifth year Ravenclaw prefect, Penelope Clearwater, walked in the corridor crossing his. She was first in her year and quite the looker. Harry thought he had seen her eyeing him more than once. He stashed that knowledge for later, however. She was quite serious with her prefect duties and going to speak with her now would hardly be a plus in her books. Instead, he waited for her to pass and a few shortcuts later he stood outside the painting of the Fat Lady, the hidden doorway to Gryffindor's common room.

He knocked on it softly to wake the sleeping lady.

"What? Who is it?" The Fat Lady grunted awake. She quickly recognized him and brushed her hand through her hair and made sure her elaborate dress sat as it should before taking up a pristine position. Harry flashed his most charming smile, receiving a shy smile back. This was not the first time Harry had sneaked in to the Gryffindor common room.

"My dear lady," he said with a flourishing bow. "I have urgent matter to attend to and I need access to the common room. Would you be so kind to let me in?" He asked, doing his best to mimic the expression his dogfather wore whenever he really wanted something, usually from a woman.

"Well." She said doubtfully. "I can't just let anyone in because they ask."

"Have I mentioned that you look absolutely stunning?" Harry shot in before she got any further. "I really missed our nightly meetings, you know." He added, making it sound like there were much more to their meetings other than him wanting access to the common room. It worked. She blushed deeply and donned a satisfied smile.

"I suppose I will let you in, since you ask so nicely. But only this once!" She said, even though they both knew it wasn't the truth. He wondered how often this happened. She allowed him in after the literally most obvious sucking up in history.

When he entered the common room, he was surprised to see that he wasn't alone. Two of the couches were occupied. One, he recognized, was the Gryffindor chaser Angelina Johnson and the other was a bushy-haired little girl with a book on her stomach. Harry recognized it to be _Hogwarts: A History_. Both were sleeping soundly and both looked like they were rather cold. Not finding any blankets immediately, he cast a warming charm on each of them and watched them easing into a more comfortable sleep.

Ignoring them for the moment, he ventured up the stairs to the left (which obviously were the boys or else he would have been sliding down by now) and found the dorm for the first years. He opened the door silently and snuck in. Immediately he was met by loud snoring. He grimaced. That better not be David. After little investigation he found both his brother's bed and the source of the snoring. It was the Weasley boy, of course. He would have to teach his brother a silencing charm one day. How he could sleep with that noise was beyond Harry. He approached David's bed and stubbed his toe upon something, probably a trunk. He struggled to avoid swearing and wake up the whole dorm. Luckily he didn't fall and managed to avoid making too much noise. Damn brother, keep your things under your bed! He would have to scold the little git about that too.

Shifting his attention to his brother, he saw that the kid was sleeping rather fitfully. He seemed to have some sort of nightmare. Every now and then he would jerk one way or the other and he let out the occasional frightened sound. He was also sweating profusely. Harry quickly cast a silencing charm around the bed. He tried to shake his brother gently and speak to him to wake him but it didn't work. Out of seemingly nowhere, he remembered the nightmares he used to have on occasion about a green light and some maniacal laughter which quickly turned into a tortured scream. He would always wake up screaming and sweating. Come to think of it, he hadn't had a single one since he defeated the piece of Voldemort within him. The way David was acting strongly reminded him of those times.

"No!" David let out a half-shout. "Stop!"

Harry reacted almost instinctively. "Hey," he said gently and grabbed his brother's hand, "it's alright. I'm here. There is nothing to worry about." David had stopped his whimpering but he was still shaking and sweating.

Thinking that it was worth a shot, Harry took a few deep breaths and expanded his mind. He could feel the different presences in the room. It was a strange feeling to touch the mind of a sleeping person. The other boys were sleeping heavily and their minds were cloudy with dreams but he focused on his brother. David's mind, however, wasn't just cloudy. It was a raging black storm with black thunder and black lightning. Simply put, there was a lot of blackness in it.

Harry didn't want to directly venture into his brother's mind. Firstly, he wasn't very practiced in the art and secondly, it would be increasingly dangerous with how unstable his brother's mind was at the moment. Instead, he focused on sending messages to his brother's mind.

'_It's okay. I am here. You don't have to be afraid.'_ He repeated the words again and again and sent them along with a feeling of comfort and, surprising himself slightly, love. He could feel the storm in his brother's mind cool down and eventually completely subside. Now, the cloudy dreams in his brother's mind were as fluffy as any of the other boys. He sighed inwardly and let go of his brother's hand only to find his brother holding onto it tightly.

"Thank you." David said groggily and Harry froze. He checked upon his brother but found that he was soundly asleep. He carefully pried his fingers loose and stood up from the bed. He had almost forgotten the initial reason he was there. Cautious so as not to kick the trunk again, he placed the candy he got for his brother on the bed table. Looking at it, perhaps he had bought too much. Well, wasn't much to do about it now. He had more than enough himself and if David was a true Potter, he shouldn't really mind. They all had a sweet tooth.

He made his way down to the common room again and was reminded of the sight of the girls in the couches. They really shouldn't be sleeping there. He thought of a way to get them to their respective dorms without simply sliding down the stairs and waking them up. The bushy haired girl was undoubtedly a first year since she was so small and he had never seen her before. Angelina, he was positive she was in her third year since she was definitely younger than him and has played on the Gryffindor team for two years.

He began with the bushy haired girl. He brought out his broom and undid the shrinking charm. Making sure she was soundly asleep, he gently lifted her up and mounted the broom. Manoeuvring it with only his knees was difficult, especially with the extra baggage, but he managed it. Slowly, he flew up the girls' staircase and soon found the door to the first years. He entered it and stepped off the broom once he was inside. It was funny how they had no traps inside the dormitories. He quickly found the only empty bed and carried her there. He tucked her in and made sure that she was well at rest. Just as he was about to put her version of _Hogwarts: A History_ on her bed table, he noticed there were a lot of notes in it. He flipped through it, smiling as he saw that she marked things she thought were brilliant, cool or sometimes lies. He looked at the first page and found that her name was Hermione Granger. She seemed to have her priorities straight. David should try to become friends with her. Before he left, he saw, or rather heard, that the girls also had a snorer, a girl with a round face and light brown locks. Feeling benevolent, Harry cast a silencing charm around the girl's bed. Once he taught David the charm, he would tell him to teach it to this Granger girl as well.

He made his way to the door and climbed back upon his Nimbus. He was tempted to simply step onto the stairway and slide down the stairs to the common but he decided against it. He didn't remember if this was the House that also raised an alarm together with the sliding stairs, and frankly, it wasn't worth the risk. The flight down was much quicker and smooth compared to the flight up. It would have been surprising if it wasn't.

In the common room he found Angelina much as he had left her. He repeated the process with her but as he lifted her up in his arms, she took her own arms and brought them around his neck. He made a quick check that she was still asleep and shrugged a little to get a better hold. He couldn't help but feel her body pressed to him. She was rather mature for her age and well-developed. He knew several guys in his year that had talked of the pretty chaser. Chasing away those kinds of thoughts he turned himself to the task at hand instead. He was rather thankful that she had grabbed hold of him. Angelina was bigger than Granger and it would be easier if she held onto him as well. Actually, she was more than just bigger than Granger. Another thing that didn't go quite the same as with Granger was that Angelina woke up halfway up the stairs. Her sudden jerk almost made him drop her and fall off the broom.

"Sleep well, Angelina." Harry greeted her softly.

"What?" Angelina moved around her head to see who was holding her. "Potter? What?"

"You can call me Harry." He chuckled softly in her ear. He couldn't see it, but he was sure that her cheeks were burning at the moment.

"Why are you holding me?" She looked around, disoriented. "Why are we flying?"

"First question. I saw you in the common room and thought you should really sleep in your own dorm. Second question. I had to get past the anti-boys charm somehow." Harry explained as if it was the most obvious and natural thing in the world. Angelina stopped for a moment, thinking. As she did, Harry did his best to cast a silencing charm around them. It wasn't his best work, but to be fair, it was hard to cast one while carrying a girl in his arms. It did its job, nonetheless, and that was enough.

"This is Gryffindor!" She shouted as if she had an epiphany.

"Indeed it is." Harry nodded sagely.

"You're Ravenclaw!" She shouted in the same tone.

"Yup. Two out of two so far. Excellent observatory skills. I can see why you made the team." He teased and he could feel her cheeks heating up again.

"Let me down, Potter." She said but he shook his head.

"Not when I've gotten this far already. Where's the fun in that? And I already asked you to call me Harry." He began the slow flight upstairs again, his focus on keeping the silencing charm around them.

"Harry." Angelina gave in through clenched teeth. "What are you doing?" She asked as he didn't let her down and even flew into her dorm.

"Which bed is yours?" He asked, looking around the dorm and not seeing an empty. She must have thought it pointless to argue as her shoulders slumped and she pointed to a bed slightly out of sight at the end of the dorm. He slowly made his way to it and when he was over it, he tried to drop her gently upon it, still on his broom. It didn't go at all how he wanted, however, as she didn't let go of his neck and he found himself following her onto the bed.

"Stay." She whispered, surprising Harry with her forwardness. Well, Gryffindors were supposed to be the brave ones. Harry's mind was spinning rapidly. This night hadn't gone at all like he planned but he didn't really have anything against it. Events were happening just fine. As long as both parties reached an agreement, there shouldn't be anything wrong with one night stand!

He did think that Angelina might have a thing for him since the train ride. Honestly, Sirius would be immensely proud with how Harry seemed to be rather popular with the ladies. Still, he had to make sure that she understood and agreed to the terms.

"I'll stay tonight." He said finally. "But you can't expect anything more, you know." He thought she looked slightly disappointed but after a short moment, she nodded her acceptance.

"Okay, only tonight." She said and pulled him in to a kiss. A kiss he willingly returned. She tasted of sweet pumpkin pie, the dessert for today's dinner. He felt her hands begin to wander underneath his shirt, struggling to take it off. He grabbed her hands in his and they broke away for a few moments. He sat up and drew the curtains on the four poster bed shut as well as put his broomstick down on the side of the bed. He also made sure to put on the strongest silencing charm he had around the bed. It wouldn't do if anyone heard them. As he did all that, Angelina had grabbed her wand, pointed it at her stomach and muttered some incantation.

AN: **Next part is lemon, so if you want to skip it, you can.  
**

* * *

Finally, they returned their attention to each other. Their hands began to wander once again. Harry took off his shirt and he could feel and see Angelina admire his well toned body with both her eyes and hands.

"I have seen it before," she mumbled, slightly dazed. "But the real thing really is different." She traced the muscles on his stomach softly with her fingers. It tickled slightly but Harry enjoyed it.

"I can't be the only one undressing." Harry joked and slipped his hand in under her jumper and shirt, pulling them both off her at the same time. He took a few seconds to admire her upper body. Being on the Quidditch team, she was also rather well trained. Her tan gave her a beautiful hue and her breasts were rather perky. He hungrily pulled her closer to him and met her mouth with his. His tongue asked for entrance and she immediately parted her lips to grant it. He explored her mouth carefully, feeling her do the same to him and turned his attention to his hands. He made quick work of the clasp to her bra and one hand found its way to her soft breast. She moaned into his mouth and broke away only to fumble with her pants.

Soon, all of their clothes had joined his broom on the floor and they could focus their whole attention on each other without anything in the way. Harry found himself kissing Angelina in the crook of her neck and working his way down. She purred with pleasure and did her best to return the favour. He felt her hands proceed downwards and he immediately stiffened. In response, he let a hand search its way down her front until it reached her moist part. He carefully fingered her, listening intently to her muffled moans as they kissed to find the right spot. When he thought he found it, he went faster. Her breathing quickened and she got wetter and wetter as he continued. Finally, a wave of shivers ran through her and she let out a muffled scream. Harry could feel by the occasional small shivers and the stickiness of his hand that it had gone for her.

"Ready?" He asked and laid her down on her back. In response, her hand still on him, forgotten there in her own pleasure, she led him to her.

"Just, be gentle." She said softly as she took all of him. And that's what he did. He started slow and for a short time they were out of sync but they soon found a matching rhythm and they kept that rhythm for as long and as many times as they could.

When they were done, Harry collapsed on the bed beside her, breathing heavy. She crept closer to him and landed a wet sloppy kiss on his nose. She giggled slightly and rested her head on his shoulder.

"That was amazing. Is sex always like that?"

"I don't know. I haven't done it with a guy." She punched him lightly on the shoulder and he chuckled.

With one arm around her, they slowly drifted off to sleep.

* * *

.

As soon as Harry woke up, he immediately felt disoriented. The curtains on his four poster bed were drawn shut. That was unusual. There was also a lot of noise outside, and it didn't sound like the usual noise. The voices were too high pitched for the guys in his dorm. He shifted slightly under the warm covers and found that it was not the covers that made it so incredibly warm. He was not alone. Lying with her leg and arm draped around him was a very tan girl with black hair. Angelina Johnson. He could feel one of her soft breasts pressing against him as she breathed.

Oh shit! If anyone found him here, McGonagall would kill him! As much as he didn't think there was anything wrong with it, he knew she would disapprove. He felt a presence outside the bed.

"Hey, Angie!" A voice called. "We need to go to breakfast. Why are your curtains drawn?"

The presence moved closer and Harry quickly shifted under the cover. He nudged Angelina in the side to wake her up. She groaned slightly and nuzzled deeper into him. As much as he would have enjoyed her closeness normally, this was not the time for cuddling. He nudged her harder, making her sit up just in time for the curtains to be drawn aside. Harry held his breath, not daring to move an inch.

"What?" Angelina asked tiredly.

"Merlin! You look like hell! Your hair is all over the place!" The voice said. He thought it might belong to that other chaser, Spinnet he thought her name was. There was a short pause. "Why are you naked?"

"What?" Angelina asked, clearly still disoriented. "Oh! I don't know, I just felt like it." He could feel her shrug.

"Oh, well, if you say so." Spinnet said although there was a hint of doubt in her voice. "Anyway, we're going to breakfast now. You coming?"

"You go on ahead, I'll be there when I'm done."

"Sure, we'll be waiting for you then."

"Don't wait too long." Angelina called after her.

Harry waited for a few minutes before moving. Finally he heard the door close and Angelina threw off the cover.

"Good morning, Harry." She greeted him with a wide grin as she stood up and began to pull on her clothes. Harry joined her, although he put on his own clothes, not hers. "That was fun." Harry couldn't help but let out a snort.

"Yeah, I would rather we skip the risk of me getting caught, though. Minnie would kill me."

"Minnie?"

"McGonagall. You should call her that sometime. She loves it." She raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'll see how it goes after you call her that first." Harry laughed slightly. "So, how will you get out without anyone seeing you?" Harry stopped for a moment to think.

"Well, could you sneak into my brother's dorm?" He asked. "You will find an invisibility cloak in his trunk. Could you take it and bring back to me?" She stared at him for a moment.

"I never did ask you why you were here." She said carefully and he gave her a wolfish grin.

"Why, to see you, of course." She snorted but he could see a faint reddening of her cheeks.

"Alright, I'll see what I can do." She said and went off.

While waiting, Harry sat himself down with his back to the bed so that if anyone came in, they wouldn't see him immediately. He started levitating Angelina's bra wandlessly, turning it around in different patterns. He had been more than surprised by the Gryffindor's behaviour last night. He could remember her on the train ride. She had been talkative, yes, and pretty straightforward, he guessed, but she had been as shy and quick as the others to blush when he spoke to them. Maybe she had matured since then or maybe it was just because he was on the singles market now. Honestly, he couldn't really say that he knew her very well. Either way, it didn't matter. He had fun last night and he hoped she did too.

"Harry, what are you doing with my bra?" Angelina asked. He jumped and sent the bra at the invader. Or perhaps he was the invader. Nevertheless, he was surprised and reacted instinctively. He hadn't noticed her walk in, not even sensed her presence. That was weird. Did the cloak block more than just your sight? She laughed at his lightning fast reaction. Really, that is how reacts to surprises? Throwing bras at them? Very effective. At least the one sneaking up on him gets a surprise in return. Archie must never hear of this.

"Just practicing my wandless magic." He explained. "Sorry about that." He gestured towards the bra hanging in midair over seemingly nothing. With a wave of his hand, it flew off from her and landed in the pile of clothes he had first taken it from. "Can I have the cloak?"

"I don't know. I kind of like being able to sneak up on people like this."

"Accio invisibility cloak." He summoned the cloak to him except, he didn't. Nothing happened. "Huh, that's interesting."

"What?"

"Nothing. I just failed the spell. Could you give it to me now? I am really hungry you know." He would have to hit the books later.

"Fine." She said exasperatedly and took it off. Harry jumped a little bit when she appeared right next to him. He hadn't felt her presence at all. Before she gave it to him, however, she stepped in to his personal space and gave him a deep kiss. Shy indeed! "Here." She pressed the invisibility cloak into his arms.

"Thanks." He commented dryly and swept the cloak over himself while stepping onto his broom. He followed Angelina out of the dorm. When they were out in the stairway he got an idea. Should he do it? Of course he should! Without warning he dismounted and, as expected, the stairs turned into a slide. A laughing Harry and a screaming Angelina both slid down the stairs and landed ungracefully at the bottom in the common room. Somehow, Harry managed to kick off as soon as he hit the ground and avoided landing on top of Angelina. Luckily, the invisibility cloak was still covering him since there were a few people in the common room. Harry immediately recognized the bushy haired girl, Granger as one of them.

"Angelina?" The perf – prefect Weasley spoke. "What happened?"

"I don't know." Angelina said and scoured the room with a mean look in her eyes. Harry did his best to not laugh as he carefully made his way to the exit. "Did you see a guy slide down with me?"

"No." Weasley answered, perplexed. "That's what's so weird." He suddenly got a mean look in his eyes. "Do you think it was my brothers?" Angelina shrugged in answer and proceeded to exit the common room and get down to the Great Hall. Harry quickly followed her so he could slip out at the same time. He must not have been as quiet as he thought he was. Once outside, Angelina made a wide sweep with her leg and caught him in his ankle.

"Ow!" He laughed. "What was that for?"

"You know perfectly well what that was for!" She sniffed and turned to walk down the moving stairs.

"Oh, well." Harry sighed and called out to her. "See you around!" He thought he saw a faint smile on her lips before he turned around and walked towards Ravenclaw tower.

* * *

**AN:** Thank you for reading the chapter and I hoped you liked it! It's my first time writing such an "intimate" scene and I hope it wasn't too bad. Personally I think it went pretty well. So, tell me what you think!

One question, though. As stated in my summary, a pairing is undecided thus far. I have some ideas and thoughts myself but it would be nice to know who is your favourite girl (or guy) so far and with whom you wishes Harry to be paired to! Thank you very much for your patience so far!


	8. Chapter 8

**AN:** Hello guys! I think I have maybe decided on a pairing but it will take a while for it to happen, so be patient. Some of your suggestions was for him to pair with people his brother's age! Preposterous! Unthinkable! Just kidding, but no I don't think that would be plausible. Think yourself if you are a teenager and you have a sibling 3 years younger, it would be impossible to have a relationship with someone 3 years younger then.

Anyway! I really like this chapter and I hope you do as well!

Disclaimer: This is a fanfic and all that it entails. Everything that belongs to J.K. Rowling still belongs to J.K. Rowling. Anything that belongs to me, belongs to me, whether it is outside of this fanfic or not. Unless it is stolen of course. No, legally, something stolen still belongs to me even if it isn't in my possession. I change my statement to 'Unless it is given away of course.' Now I jinx this statement so that it disclaims all the chapters in this story!  
Sorry for the rambling, please enjoy!

* * *

"Again!" Harry commanded and his little brother rushed towards him, sword (stick) in hand. David leaped towards him but Harry smoothly swept David's sword to the side while sidestepping him and ended the fluid manoeuvre by swinging his sword at David's neck, stopping just a few inches above it. Instead, he gave his brother a push in the back so he scrambled to the ground. "Don't rush in recklessly. Never lose control of your sword and never lose your balance. The most important thing in sword fighting is defence. A sword can easily kill or slice off your arm and you can't keep fighting when you're dead or missing your limbs." David had turned around on the ground and listened to his brother with hateful eyes.

"You've said that hundreds of times already!" He protested.

"Have I? It doesn't look that way when we spar." Harry shot back, making the evil look his brother was giving him increase in intensity. "Again!" He barked again and his brother hurried to stand up to have a go at him again.

Harry quite enjoyed playing the teacher role. He had found a couple of books on it but it was mostly rubbish and nothing that he didn't already know or had read in his own books. Instead he did his own thing. Undeniably, he was inspired by many of the muggle movies he had seen on sword play and martial arts. He did no Miyagi thing, no, that would be totally overkill but he did entertain the thought. The brush goes up and down, up and down. Harry couldn't help but grin in amusement. But no, it wouldn't do.

What Harry did focus on was balance and physical capabilities. Gone was the little brat's baby fat and instead David now sported a rather lean body. He had also gained some length since the term started. Harry was very careful not to overwork his brother's muscles, though. It could have some serious effects on the boy's growth if his muscles got too big while so young. Instead, most of the work went into building up his stamina and working on his agility. Archie had seen a gymnastics movie in the summer before their second year and the things they could do with their bodies were, mildly said, amazing. That was the kind of body they were after in their training. Not too big but still strong, durable, flexible and, as a result, acrobatic. The perfect body for Quidditch as it turned out. With some research being done, and more than a few letters sent between them and Archie's muggleborn aunt, they had managed to work out a training schedule for them to obtain their desired bodies. Now, they were applying that very same workout to David.

Back to his training of David. Harry didn't teach David what to do. He didn't really teach him how to do anything. That would have required Harry to teach out a certain school of the sword and since Harry's sword fighting was as far away from any school, that would not do. No, David had to find his own techniques, stances and grips, just like Harry and Archie had been forced to. Harry was no master of the sword and he would not pretend to be one. He could point out evident weaknesses or mistakes that David did or if Harry recognized what David was trying to do, he could show him how to do it, or try to. As mentioned before, Harry was no master of the sword. He was, however, a lot better than David was.

"Hey, Harry." His brother said and brought Harry out of his reverie. David was once again lying sprawled out on the ground and breathing heavily. How many times was it now? Harry had lost count. "Was it you?"

"What?" Harry looked at his brother, confused as to what he was getting at.

"Last night. I had a nightmare and I usually wake up sweating and screaming from it." David started explaining and Harry where he was getting at.

"And?"

"And, last night I didn't. Instead I woke up in the morning with a strange sense of... security. It felt like, you." David finished embarrassingly while looking out over the lake. "I saw the candy I asked you about yesterday on my bed table, so I just figured..."

"Yeah, it was me." Harry interrupted his brother. He thought about last night, about how he himself used to wake up from those very same dreams. It also led to some pleasant thoughts about Angelina and how she had felt in his arms.

"Thanks." David said simply.

"Don't mention it." Harry responded. "Now get up and try again before I hit you in the head." He attempted to say it harshly to get his brother moving but even he could hear the warmness in his voice. It still had the desired effect, though. His brother knew that he wasn't one to go back on his threats.

.

Harry looked around the Dumbledore's office. The first thing he noticed was the absence of Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes. He spent a moment wondering where the fiery bird might be but it quickly slipped from his mind as he took in the rest of the office. He had never quite examined it as carefully as this before and he couldn't understand for the life of him why he hadn't. It was a most interesting room, filled with all kinds of different things, both magical and nonmagical. Nothing seemed to hold its certain place but instead it was organized into an unorganized mess, a thing was placed were there was room. Most of all, however, the office contained books. Where there wasn't a portrait of a previous Headmaster, there were books. The walls were paved with shelves upon shelves of them and there were even several uneven piles of them on the floor, undoubtedly they were supported by magic, or else Harry would have no idea how they didn't fall over. There weren't just books, though. It was also filled with all kinds of trinkets and instrument. Harry recognized several muggle instruments from the different movies he had seen such as a calculator and, oddly enough, a white and blue football shirt with the name 'Maradona' on the back. There was also one shelf filled with trinkets that could only be magical. They looked like they were monitoring something, or someone. Harry had no idea what it could be though.

Harry recognized one silvery trinket to be a sneakoscope. No doubt the Headmaster used it to amuse himself with all the pranks and sneaking that the Weasley twins, and maybe himself, got up to. Speaking of the Headmaster, Harry and him had become quite friendly with each other since Harry told his story to the old man, despite how Harry had claimed them to be otherwise. The confrontation had drastically changed the Headmaster's attitude towards him and without noticing it at first, Harry was finding himself enjoying this new change. There was something magical about Albus Dumbledore, other than spells and charms, that made him very likable when he put aside all of his duties and titles, self-imposed or not, until just the man, Albus Dumbledore was left.

At the moment said man was standing in front of the desk while Harry was sitting comfortably, and regally, in the Headmaster's own chair behind his desk. It was something along the lines of Dumbledore wanting to experience how it was on the other side of the desk for once. It was a weird experience, but not a bad one. Harry thought it was quite fun, actually. The old coot was as odd as they came but he could be quite entertaining when he put that side to it.

"You wanted to see me, Professor Harry." Dumbledore said with a tiny voice after allowing Harry to take in his surroundings for some time. "Oh, my mistake, _Professor_ Potter." Dumbledore hurried to correct himself.

"Yes, Professor..."

"Please, call me Mr. Dumbledore or Albus."

"Albus, then. It's about David."

"Ahh, no doubt it's about the nightmares he's suffering from? The same nightmares, I believe, that you suffered from in your previous years?" The old man commented absentmindedly.

"How?" Harry half-stood in the old chair. To a bystander it would have looked like he was looming over the Headmaster.

"I see how this can be intimidating for the student." Dumbledore mumbled and then remembered that he had been asked a question. "Oh, yes! There is not a lot that goes on in this school without my knowledge. I am surprised you came to me so quickly. It was only last night you visited Gryffindor Tower." Dumbledore beamed at him and his eyes were twinkling like mad. It made Harry wonder exactly what the Headmaster. Oh, well. If that was how he wanted to play. This time Harry really was looming over the Headmaster, or trying to. He did his best Snape-grin and he must say that the Headmaster did a terrific job of playing the frightened student, despite his long beard.

"Be careful with what you are insinuating, Mr. Dumbledore, or you will force my hand and assign you to detention! How does scrubbing pots for ten days sound?" Harry tried to sound as intimidating as he wished that he looked.

"Oh, I am terribly sorry, Headmaster." Dumbledore managed to say before he was interrupted by the door opening.

.

Who else but McGonagall would step in on them in this bizarre situation? To say that she was surprised would be a gross understatement. How often did she step into the Headmaster's office and see her biggest dilemma of a student not only behind the Headmaster's desk but looming over the Headmaster as was he a misbehaving student? She must surely have heard wrong when she got in. She thought she had heard Albus apologize to Harry and call him headmaster.

"Ah, good. You heeded my summons, Minerva." Harry said when turning her, showing no surprise on his face at her entrance. What? Harry had summoned her? She thought it was the Headmaster that had summoned her? She looked at Albus standing in front of the desk looking humble and narrowed her eyes. What was he up to now? "We were just discussing Mr. Dumbledore's punishment here." The boy carried on casually and Dumbledore flashed her a small guilty smile.

"I-he-what? Punishment?" McGonagall's head was spinning. She rested her head in her hands. She was mad. She must have finally lost it. Maybe one of the first years hit her with a failed spell and she was sent to a parallel universe, a universe where, to her horror, Albus Dumbledore was a misbehaving student and Harry Potter was the Headmaster of Hogwarts. A universe that surely was doomed. She sat down, completely ready to fall down on the floor and not minding it at all. She didn't fall on the floor, however, but instead she landed on a simple conjured stool. Someone had conjured it up to catch her. Normally she would have assumed it was Albus but with how things were right now, it might as well have been Potter. Another proof he was well beyond his OWLs already.

It was quiet in the room, too quiet. Hesitantly, she looked up from her hands and looked at the Headmaster, no, Albus Dumbledore the student. His eyes were twinkling at a level she hadn't seen since the first war against You-know-who and he was wearing a wide grin that she often saw on the Weasley twins. A grin she had learned to dread. She looked up at Potter, no, Headmaster Potter and saw the same grin on him. The world really was doomed!

"I reckon we have frightened her enough, Harry." She could hear Dumbledore say beside her but she didn't register any of it.

"Yeah, maybe. It's loads of fun, though."

"Sadly, all things must come to an end, even the fun things." Dumbledore sighed although he still wore that horrible grin. "It has, nevertheless, been a most educating experience! I thank you for the opportunity, Harry."

"Likewise, Professor," Harry agreed, also still wearing that dreadful grin. "I had a really good time. If you want to do it again, I would happily volunteer."

"I will keep that in mind, Harry." Dumbledore chuckled.

She snapped.

"ALBUS DUMBLEDORE AND HARRY JAMES POTTER..."

.

Harry didn't know that McGonagall could scream like that. He didn't really think they deserved it. If she had given them a chance to explain the context she would have surely understood. It did make him reconsider his whole crusade of calling her Minnie, though. Not enough to discontinue it, mind you, only reconsider.

"Really, Albus! This is highly unbecoming of a Headmaster of Hogwarts school of witchcraft!" She finished her tirade.

"But you see, Minerva. It is precisely because I _am_ a Headmaster that I needed to do this." Dumbledore argued back, calm as ever. He and Harry had switched back to their supposed places. The Headmaster was once again the student and the student was once again the Headmaster. "It was such a long time ago since I was a student. I needed to remember what it was like to be on the other side of the desk to be able to understand my students better." Judging by the expression on Minnie's face, she didn't really have an answer for that.

"I...see." She said carefully after a while, making sure it still was evident that she disapproved. She would still let it slide, for now, and focus on the other matters, such as why she was called to Dumbledore's office.

"Well, then!" Dumbledore clasped his hands loudly, centring the attention on him. "Let's get this meeting started. It's good that you are here, Harry. We have more we need to talk to you about, other than your brother's dreams. Not that the matter is unimportant," Dumbledore added as Harry was about to protest, "just that it would be convenient to bring it up now that you are here." He finalised and beamed when Harry nodded acceptingly.

"So, you don't know how to stop them? The dreams, that is."

"What dreams?" McGonagall asked curiously. Harry gave Dumbledore a questioning look. The Headmaster must have understood because in the next moment he answered the silent question.

"You can tell her everything, Harry, if you choose to do so. Minerva has my outmost trust." And so, Harry told her the same story he told Dumbledore and Flitwick in the Hospital Wing at the beginning of the term. Much like Flitwick, there was a lot of widening of the eyes, although Harry would say that McGonagall won in that department, but maybe that had something to do with Flitwick being part goblin.

"So, to summarize it all." McGonagall was clearly trying to come to terms with all the new and surprising information she had been fed. "You had a part of ..."

"Voldemort," Harry corrected, earning a beaming smile and a nod from Dumbledore.

"Yes, him, inside of you and then in the beginning of this term, after your breakup with Miss Tonks, you battled with this fragment and killed it with a love beam?"

"Sounds about right." Harry agreed with a sheepish grin. It sounded much lamer when she told the story.

"As a result, these dreams about a green flash that has been bothering you for many years disappeared. Your brother also has a piece of You – Voldemort in him and last night you noticed that he was reacting the same way as you did when he was sleeping?"

"Yes."

"Do I want to know what you were doing in the Gryffindor Tower when you are, I believe, a Ravenclaw yourself?" She narrowed her eyes at him and he felt a cold shiver run down his spine.

"Ehh, no, Professor?" He turned to Dumbledore for help but the Headmaster was simply smiling regretfully towards him. He hadn't thought of getting into trouble for that when he told his story. "Could we focus on how to help my brother instead?" He tried. It earned him an even narrower look from McGonagall but in the end she nodded. Phew, that was narrowly avoided. It wasn't until he relaxed that he noticed he had begun to sweat.

"Is that the reason he has taken up training with you and Mr. Mimosa? To train him until he can fight off this part of the Dark Lord in his mind?" Harry nodded. "Good, I feared it was because of much more impure reasons." Harry couldn't help but smile. He didn't think David was old enough to even entertain such thoughts yet, but it seemed that McGonagall didn't always think the best of the Potter lineage. Not that he blamed her. Just hearing stories of how much trouble his father caused her was enough. And now that he thought about it, Harry's time at Hogwarts hadn't really been peaceful for her either.

"So, Professor," Harry turned to Dumbledore. "Do you know of a way to stop these dreams?" He was a little disappointed when Dumbledore sagely shook his head.

"Alas, Harry, I do not know. We can only train him to the best of our capabilities until he can face Voldemort on his own and then we can only hope that he is capable of as much love as you were when you defeated the peace inside of you. I fear that, until then, there is nothing we can do."

"But I could help him!" Harry protested. "I did so last night, remember?"

"Indeed, what you did last night was truly remarkable, Harry." Dumbledore praised him. "It took a very precise and careful Legilimens to do that and while it is indeed true that you helped him last night, it is not possible for us to always have someone available to soothe David's dreams. To begin with, there are not many who would be able to." Harry was a little surprised. Was Legilimency really that rare? In the end, he was forced to nod his acceptance. "Well, then, that brings us to other matters!" Dumbledore's change of topic was as abrupt as it was refreshing. "I believe you are taking your OWLs this year?" He asked and looked between him and McGonagall.

"Yes." Harry replied.

"He is quite capable, Albus. He says himself that he has passed beyond OWL-level already and he has on several occasions displayed NEWT-level skills, in more than one class."

"Marvellous! I assume Filius was ecstatic when he heard?" McGonagall nodded and he chuckled slightly. "I will take an educated guess and predict that we will never hear the end of it in the next staff , I will have to send an owl informing your parents. I know your situation, Harry." He said, raising a hand to stop any potential protests. "But regulations are regulations. While I don't believe they would, had things been different or not, they won't have any power to stop you and neither is their permission necessary." This calmed Harry down immensely. He hated putting anything of his in the hands of his parents. That was the same as ensuring that it would never happen.

"I understand, Professor. Thank you."

"It is my honour to help you, Harry. If I may be so conceited, I would say that there will not be many years until you match myself, maybe not in knowledge, but in both strength and skill." Harry could only stare at the Headmaster and he did not need to look to see that McGonagall was doing the same. Had he called the Headmaster funnily odd before? Mad was a much more appropriate word to describe. "Oh, there is no need to look at me like that. You are quite possibly the brightest wizard in generations. I once had another student as talented, if not more than you. He was quite like you, smart, quick-witted, powerful, even his childhood was not too different. But I failed miserably." Dumbledore's grandfatherly face had taken on a sad look and his eyes had lost their familiar shine. He seemed incredibly old at the moment. For some reason, Harry got the feeling that he knew who Dumbledore was referring to. "I consider it my gravest mistake. It had consequences that affected not only me but the entire wizarding world." There was a heavy silence for a few minutes. Finally, Harry spoke up.

"Did you teach it to him?" He asked, grabbing back the attention from the Headmaster's memories. "Did you teach him dark magic? Did you teach him pureblooded superiority?" The Headmaster shook his dumbly. There was a faint smile on his face as he realized the direction Harry was taking the conversation. "Then it wasn't your fault. Voldemort only has himself to blame for how he turned out."

"Maybe you are right, Harry. But one can't help but think that perhaps, perhaps I could have done something different."

"No, Professor." Harry objected strongly. "It's a thing of the past. What is, is, what was, was and what will be, will be. It won't help thinking about what could have been. Despite, it wasn't even your mistake to make. Thus, it makes even less sense to blame yourself." As he spoke, Dumbledore's aged face seemed to grow younger and younger as a bright smile shone its way through the surface.

"You are truly remarkable, Harry. What you have is more than just smarts and your many skills. It's something I can't quite put my finger on, but it makes me think that the future is bright. You have made an old man, barren with guilt, feel a little better about himself and for that, I cannot thank you enough. I think the muggles have a word for this. Now, what was it again?"

"Therapy?" Harry suggested.

"Yes! That's the one!" Dumbledore whooped happily.

"Well, Professor. Usually one charges money for a session but I'll let you have this one for free. If you require my services once more, however, I will have to charge you by the hour."

"I will keep that in mind." Dumbledore chuckled. For the first time in a while, Harry remembered that McGonagall was present. He turned to look at her just in time to see her rolling her eyes at the Headmaster. There was something else as well that Harry couldn't quite put his finger on. It looked like... pride. Pride? What would she feel pride over?

"Is it alright if I leave then, old man?" Harry asked jokingly, making his way to the door.

"Ah, one last thing, Harry." Dumbledore stopped him. "There is something of crucial importance that I would need to tell you. I believe that you are indeed more than mature enough." Harry thought for a moment. There was a lot going on right now. He had a lot of balls in the air, almost more than he could count. He didn't know if he would be able to keep up anymore without everything falling apart around him. He looked at McGonagall. She was looking at the Headmaster satisfactorily, as if she had been waiting a long time for this moment. Well, if it had taken that long for this moment, maybe it could wait some more.

"Is it urgent?" He asked, surprising them both with the question.

"Why, no, I do not believe so." Dumbledore began slowly.

"How not urgent?" Harry asked, wanting more specifics.

"Hopefully, it will not be of urgency for another few years." He said carefully.

"Then it can wait. Right now I have too much going on. I don't know if I can handle another thing. Get back to me after my OWLs."

"Are you sure, Harry?" McGonagall asked, concerned.

"Why, yes. Absolutely positive." Harry confirmed. "If that was all," he paused, waiting for them to say something. When they didn't, he continued. "I will take my leave. Goodnight, Professor, Headmaster."

.

Albus Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk, rather dumbfounded by the brisk exit of Harry Potter. As far as he could see, Minerva was gazing thoughtfully at the door the young wizard had just left through. There was a strange silence in the room, signifying the space left behind by the oldest Potter son. The old wizard could feel a happy tear running down his left cheek.

"Ahh, to be young again!" He exclaimed softly, wiping the tear away with his sleeve. "The mind of a child is positively beyond fascinating and refreshing!" Minerva could only nod in agreement.

Truly, Albus Dumbledore loved his job. With a school full of children, there was never an end to the surprises.

.

Harry did, in fact, have a lot of balls up in the air. He made sure to quickly get the OWL material from his teachers. It really was a lot of books, especially potions, although Harry suspected that Snape gave him work beyond even his OWLs, no doubt hoping to bring him down with it all. Most teachers had given him a warm and expectant smile but Snape had worn an evil smirk that did nothing but unnerve Harry, not that he let it show in front of the man. A quick leafing through the books had his suspicions confirmed. Ever since his father's time at Hogwarts there has been a feud between the Potter's and Snape and Harry excelling academically had done nothing to dissuade it. However, there was only so much the potions professor could do if one made sure to be perfect at every opportunity.

As predicted, Cai finding out was not the most pleasant of experiences, although different from how he had imagined it. Harry was in the library reading the theory of the Glacius, Glacius duo and Glacius tria, the freezing charm. It was quite interesting how, by adding 'duo' or 'tria', it became more powerful especially since that only worked for very few of the spells Harry knew about. The protego charm and stunning spell worked similarly but not identically. It was actually something Harry hadn't gone through when studying by himself. Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to not jump too far ahead of himself.

"Does Flitwick know you are reading that?" A voice asked from beside him.

"Yeah," he answered absentmindedly and kept reading about the mechanics behind the spell. "He gave it to me?"

"He gave it to you? Why?" Bollocks, this was a noisy person. Didn't she know they were in the library? Madam Pince was giving them annoyed looks.

"I'm taking my OWLs this year." He hoped he would be able to get some privacy if he just told the person. Boy was he wrong.

"You WHAT?" He looked up just in time to see Cai staring at him with wide eyes before they both were promptly thrown out by the irritated librarian. They were even banned from the library for a week! That was very unfair.

"Good job, Cai." He said, voice dripping with sarcasm and sighed. He really had expected this, it was just bad timing. He shouldn't have kept off telling her. Over breakfast would have been fun, or during their next promised date to Hogsmeade. _That_ would have been an interesting date.

"Why are you taking your OWLs this year?" She demanded, ignoring his snide comment. Well, let's get on with it so he could return to the Glacius spell.

"The teachers have simply noticed my excellence." He shrugged. There was really no need to be humble. "I am well ahead in theory and even further ahead in the practical part. I can do most OWL level spells silently no problem."

"..." She was staring at him disbelievingly. It was slightly irritating. If it's proof she wants...

He pushed her, nothing rough, rather gently actually, but it was enough. It was probably more the surprise of it all than the actual push that made her stumble backwards and fall. Within a heartbeat, Harry's wand was out and he silently conjured up a chair behind her for her to fall back into. At closer look, it was a lot like the chair he had conjured up for McGonagall to fall into during one of the most interesting meeting in the Headmaster's office that Hogwarts had ever seen.

"Proof enough for you?" He asked. He guessed that she had some sort of inferiority complex towards him for being 'too good' and never being able to beat him, but honestly, that was her problem and not his. It wasn't as if he hadn't workd for it. Harry did the best he could to enjoy his life and he thought he was doing a pretty good job of it at the moment. If anyone spited him for that, well, that person wasn't worth his time. He was happy, glad even, that he had it easier than others. That he remembered and understood most things at first glance. He knew it was a gift that he had and others lacked, but he lacked many things compared to others, too. He would give all of his abilities and talents away to have a normal childhood with parents who noticed and loved him.

He noticed that Cai was no longer looking at him disbelievingly, but she looked...worried? He noticed that he had begun to breathe very fast, as if he was playing a very gruelling Quidditch match. He could feel his magic roaring inside him.

"I'm sorry, Harry." Cai said carefully. "I didn't mean to not believe you or offend you. I was just... I was just surprised. That's all." He took a few breaths to calm his magic down and ease his breathing. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm okay. Sorry about that." He bent down to grab his book which had fallen to the floor sometime in the last few minutes and walked away, leaving Cai sitting in the chair he had conjured up for her. Maybe he had some preconceptions about how Cai felt in relation to him. He had thought she would be more jealous than anything but she was obviously more mature than that. Walking away, he felt a little bad that he would think so lowly of her.

.

Days turned into weeks and Harry soon got into a steady rhythm. In classes were he would otherwise just drift off in his own thoughts, he now actually had work to do. It was a refreshing experience. He still had his classes with the fourth years since he worked at his own pace and it wouldn't do any difference really to put him with the fifth years. The teachers found that he very seldom needed something explained to him and anything he did need help with was solved in a few minutes if not seconds. If anything, he was more often asked to demonstrate how to perform the spells in class or help his classmates. Not that he minded. He had developed a certain liking for teaching. It brought a sense of accomplishment to see someone successively use what you helped teach them. In fact, Harry wouldn't mind becoming a teacher in the future, after he has changed the world of Quidditch, of course.

Other than class work, Harry was occupied with training David while he and Archie trained themselves. It wasn't going very fast but they were making progress. One can't expect too much out of an eleven year old boy. As during class, Harry found that he liked teaching during their training, even if it was the slow witted David he was teaching. He began teaching spells, starting with the silencing charm and very stern orders to teach it to a bushy-haired first year Gryffindor called Hermione Granger and ignoring David's confused and curious questions about it. He inquired about what they were learning from Quirrell, their Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. As the case with Harry's class, it turned out to be nothing. It wasn't that Quirrell wasn't knowledgeable, the opposite actually, but the stuttering and his utter weirdness was impossible to get through. So Harry started teaching his brother some spells, to make up for their useless DADA teacher. He taught him the knockback jinx, bogey curse, wand-lighting charm and sending different coloured sparks in the air as signals. Due to David studying ahead as Harry had told him, they skipped most of the theory. To Harry's surprise and annoyance, David was incredibly talented in spell-casting and he mastered the spells at a rate that was far too fast for Harry's liking. Soon, they would move onto the second-year curriculum of spells.

Even with all his studying for OWLs and training with Archie and David - and Quidditch, he shouldn't forget about Quidditch - Harry still found that he had free time on his hands. Archie spent quite a lot of time with Viola. They were a couple and Harry understood that, but did they have to be so, what's the right word, disgusting? Maybe not the exact word to describe it but it was definitely a synonym. Harry actually liked Viola but he really didn't want to be in the vicinity when the two of them got all cuddly and whatnot. It was like they had lost all decency! There were _first years_, eleven years old kids in this school for Merlin's sake! They were far too young for the scenes that the pair caused. Surely Tonks and he hadn't been like that? Then and there, Harry decided that they hadn't.

During escape from the monster lovers he was usually accompanied by Cai. It was a little awkward between them at first but they soon reverted to their teasing and bantering although there was something extra, indefinable, hanging between them. Harry wasn't sure if he was looking forward or not to their next Hogsmeade weekend date. It wasn't Cai that dwelled in his mind, however. It was Angelina. Harry was the one that had said there would be nothing more and he had made sure that Angelina was on the same track. Nevertheless, Harry' thoughts always returned to her. He didn't think he was in love, but there was something special about the dark-skinned chaser. They didn't talk much, but is eyes automatically looked for her in the Great Hall and when they found her, she would always send him a secretive smile. It made his blood pump and he thought she knew it. It resulted in three or four more visits to the Gryffindor Tower, he wasn't counting.

Harry's parents hadn't tried sending him another letter after the first one, not yet, but it was nagging at the back of his mind. Archie had told him to ignore any attempt from them to suddenly act all parenty short from coming here themselves and Harry agreed with him. Still, the letter had affected him deeply, and Archie knew it. He could see it, the insecurity Harry had worked hard to get rid of during the years of Hogwarts. The sadness when the others received letters from their parents while Harry received none, until now. All that he could do was to be there for Harry, support him as he knew that Harry would have done for him. That he did, and Harry loved him all the more for it.

Time simply flew by and before Harry knew it, Halloween was upon them.

* * *

**AN:** There you go!

That's a nice buildup in my humblest (not at all) opinion. Next chapter will be full of good stuff! Hopefully.

As usual, if you have anything, questions, ideas, opinions, critique or anything I neglected to mention, you are more than welcome to review! I will try my best to not answer whatever you say in my responses!


	9. Chapter 9

**AN:** Hi again! Here is the next chapter. It is kinda short but hopefully you will understand why once you read it! Hope you enjoy!

* * *

Halloween proceeded eventless. Classes were as normal and all of Hogwarts seemed to be unaffected by the approaching feast, all except the Great Hall. The house elves had gone all out this year. The Great Hall was decorated with levitating candy-filled pumpkins, thousands of live bats, orange streamers and all sorts of other Halloween related decorations. It gave off a sort of scary cosiness with lack of a better word. Harry thought that today he would finally approach Dumbledore and propose to get rid of the snitch. He had completely forgotten it when last in the Headmaster's office. He had even prepared several very well-developed arguments, in his opinion, to help his cause. He should have just taken the chance to abolish it when he was in the Headmaster's position! Not that he really thought it would have worked, but he was allowed to dream, wasn't he?

He held up his goblet of pumpkin juice and looked at the staff table. Dumbledore was looking right back at Harry and when their eyes met, he held up his goblet as in a toast. Harry did the same and took a deep swig of his contents only to feel a burning sensation in his throat and stomach, causing him to cough. He looked at his goblet and saw that it wasn't filled with the usual orange pumpkin juice but it had a slightly red tinge to it, strongly reminding him of fire whisky. Of course, Harry had _no_ idea what fire whiskey felt like and could really only guess that it was what he had just been drinking. He could feel the warm sensation spreading from his stomach and immediately looked over at the Weasley twins and saw them quickly averting their eyes. He didn't miss the large grin upon their faces, though, loudly proclaiming who the culprits were. To the surprise of them and the people around Harry, he let out a deep barking laugh. It had been so long since they last attempted something on him that he had completely let his guard down. Well, he had surely learned his lesson now. He would have to be more wary of them. Maybe he could manufacture some revenge. It would have to be when they least expected it.

Harry emptied his goblet with a vanishing charm and refilled it with what he made sure to be pumpkin juice and, after giving the Weasley twins a meaningful look that they gladly returned, downed it to clear the burning sensation in his throat. He was just about to explain what had happened to Archie and the others around him, who were all looking at him wonderingly, when the large doors to the Great Hall burst open. In scampered Professor Quirrell, looking wildly distressed and frightened.

"Troll!" He yelled. "In the dungeons! Troll in the dungeons! Thought you ought to know." And he passed out, falling to the floor in a heap.

The Great Hall was in an immediate uproar. A troll! In the dungeons! How did it get in?

"Trolls are really stupid!" Cai said, next to Harry. "It couldn't have gotten in by itself." Harry nodded his head in agreement and he saw Archie and Viola doing the same. That meant someone had let it in, but who? Would a student be able to lead a troll into the castle without notice? Harry looked at Professor Quirrell lying unmoving on the ground, the only Professor not at the staff table during the feast. His thoughts process was interrupted, however, by Dumbledore using a firecracker spell to grab all the students attention.

"Prefects! Lead your houses back to the dormitories immediately." He bellowed to the Great Hall and the prefects immediately set to work, beginning with the frightened first years. But, the Slytherin common was in the dungeons! Well, not like the troll would be able to do anything against dozens of students, and Harry knew from experience that Slytherin had some pretty capable duelers. Together, they would be able to handle it without any problem.

Harry found himself involuntarily searching for David to see that he got on alright and was alarmed to see him and his Weasley friend holding back and running the other way.

"Gotta go." He whispered to Archie. "My brother is off doing something stupid."

"Want me to come with you?" Archie asked while holding one arm around Viola.

"No, I got this." Harry answered and hurried off. He just managed to catch sight of his brother and Weasley friend, he would have to learn the name of that boy, before they rounded a corner. Harry followed them, all the time making sure to stay far enough behind so they would not notice them. Maybe they weren't doing anything stupid and just, Harry didn't know what they could be doing that wasn't stupid but they weren't heading for the dungeons so he would give them the benefit of the doubt.

His stomach quickly turned sour, however, and it wasn't just because of the disgusting stench but also because of the source of it. Of course they would run straight into the troll which wasn't at all in the dungeons. His brother also seemed greatly surprised by the sight and he and his friend quickly froze. To Harry's distinct pride, however, they saw the troll go into a room and quickly ran forward to close the door and locked it inside. Now they only needed to tell a Professor and the matter would be solved.

He quickly changed his mind, however, when he heard high-pitched scream reverberating from the locked room. The room his brother had so efficiently locked the troll in, was the girl's bathroom, and it was occupied. David and Weasley hurried back to the room and unlocked it with Harry quickly catching up to them, surprising them with his presence. He felt a little lightheaded as he wrenched the doors open only to see the Granger girl creeping around on the floor with the troll swinging its heavy club around and breaking sinks and toilets trying to get her. She looked frightened to bits.

"Do something!" David yelled at him and started throwing bits of rubble at the troll with the Weasley kid. Harry, already having his wand out was trying to rummage his mind in search of spells that would be useful against a troll. They were incredibly resistant to magic and weak spells would simply bounce off them. But his mind was not up to its usual standard. While he was thinking, the troll had noticed the three new students and, identifying Harry as the largest threat due to his size and having his wand out, started making his way towards him.

"Obscuro!" Harry yelled and blindfolded the troll in an attempt to buy him more time. Why was he having so much trouble with coming up with a simple spell? He was surprised by the troll's club swooshing down and breaking the tiles right next to him. It had been so close that Harry could feel the wind after the club. Blindfolding the troll had caused it to wildly flay around with its club. It was by pure luck that Harry wasn't squashed by now. Harry continued to search for a spell he could use. His head was hurting so much. What about the freezing charm he had learnt earlier? He could make it powerful enough. Merlin, his head was beginning to pound very heavily.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" A voice cried from behind him. It was the Weasley kid. The levitating spell? Really? It wasn't fruitless, however, as the troll's great hand rose to bring its club down, the only thing coming down was the hand, and not the club that stayed up in the air. Even more confused, the troll began punching around with its arms. It was heading for David. Harry reacted instinctively and hurried over and pushed David back, using too much strength resulting in David hitting his head on a sink and sinking to the ground. His body really wasn't as swift as it usually was. Now the troll's punch was coming straight at him. He should have been able to dodge it but his legs felt like they were dragging through mud. Instead he pointed his wand straight at the troll's head.

"Glacius tria!" He bellowed just as he was punched in the side by the troll's great sweeping hand. He flew to the side and a sharp crack was heard as his shoulder impacted upon the wall. He didn't lose consciousness, though, and saw that the troll's head and most of its upper body were enclosed in ice. The troll took a few tumbling steps backwards, and the Granger girl hurried out of the way to Harry, before it promptly fell to the ground. Some of the ice broke off but to Harry's relief, the ice held. With a great sigh of relief, he slid down the wall and looked at his shoulder only to quickly look away. His bone, he didn't care to look again to figure out which one, was poking out of his shoulder. It wasn't hurting at the moment. He suspected it was due to the adrenaline pumping through his veins. It would soon pass, however.

"You!" He barked to the Weasley kid who was shifting between staring at his shoulder with an expression of awe and the troll with fright. "What's your name?" Harry was looking at his brother worryingly. It looked like he was bleeding from the head.

"Ron Weasley!" He yelled back, frightened. Hermione Granger was now standing next to him, eyes fixed upon the troll lying still on the floor.

"Ron, go check on David. He is bleeding from the head. I want you to try to stop the bleeding. Use anything, your clothes should do just fine." He instructed him as calmly as he could and Ron dumbly hurried over to David's side, trying to do as Harry had told. Harry could slowly feel the adrenaline running out of him and, with it, the pain coming. He grimaced slightly before turning to Hermione who still wasn't looking. "Hermione!" He barked to get her attention. It worked. She turned to him with surprise at how he had learned her name. "Are you alright?" She nodded slightly and then with a gasp, she noticed his shoulder. "I need you to get a teacher."

"What about you?" She asked in a high pitch.

"That's the reason you need to get a teacher!" He said frustratingly through clenched teeth. The pain in his shoulder was only increasing. He felt as if it would hurt less if he tore it all off. Hermione nodded and made as if to run, but she immediately stopped as Dumbledore, McGonagall, Sprout, Flitwick, Snape and Quirrell all entered the bathroom. There was a collective gasp as they took in the huge troll half-encased in a block of ice and another one as they took in David's and, most severely, Harry's state.

"Get madam Pomfrey, please, Severus." Dumbledore said calmly but with a sense of urgency and the potions professor hurried away. Harry was losing too much blood, but he didn't dare touch his shoulder. "Here, Harry." Dumbledore said and held Harry's head up to pour something down his throat. A blood replenishing potion. Bloody brilliant! "Can you tell me what happened here?"

"Surely you aren't going to interrogate the boy right here and now, Albus?" McGonagall inquired, upset. "He could faint at any moment now!" But Harry, glad for something to distract him from his shoulder, jumped upon the chance to explain what had happened. Ron and Hermione were standing close to David, mouths open and speechless.

He summarized it all up neatly and quickly and told them how he saw David and Ron run away and decided to follow them. At this part in the story, Ron piped in and told them how they went off to fetch Hermione. Harry then continued to tell how they locked the troll inside the bathroom and what a mistake that was. Then Harry came to help them but he was feeling kind of groggy because someone, he didn't mention whom, had pranked him and switched his pumpkin juice with fire whiskey and so his thinking and movements weren't what they should have been. He then told them quickly of the fight with the troll and how he pushed David a little too hard out of the way. The teachers all reacted differently. Dumbledore nodded in confirmation at Harry's retelling of the story as if everything Harry had done was the correct thing. McGonagall was staring at him disapprovingly with eyes widening occasionally at some parts. Sprout was gasping at all the right places and her hand was covering her mouth. Flitwick was listening intently and nodding and even clapping gleefully when Harry told him of how he pushed David out of the way and managed to freeze the troll.

Just as Harry finished his story, Madam Pomfrey came bustling in at an incredible speed.

"Hello, Poppy." Harry greeted her with a smile. He knew he was in safe hands now and succumbed to the darkness.

.

Harry awoke in the infirmary. He looked at his shoulder and saw that his bone was no longer protruding from it. He was also no longer feeling so thick in the head which was a relief. Madam Pomfrey, seeing him shifting in bed, bustled over to him.

"I see you are awake, Mr. Potter. I had to vanish the bone and use skelegro on you." She explained coldly. That would explain the itching sensation then. "Honestly, what were you thinking? Fighting a Mountain Troll!" She didn't really sound as she was reprimanding him, however. She had probably heard the story from the others. She then looked up above his bed and Harry thought distinctly that she was smirking before she quickly hid it with a look of disapproval. "Obviously, your friend Mr. Mimosa thought this was funny." She said and reached out to rip a paper off the wall above Harry's head and showed it to him. It was a sign saying Harry Potter, marking the bed as his. Harry couldn't help but grin. For all the talk about making one of the beds his permanently, it was a fitting joke if you asked Harry.

"What about David?" Harry asked, remembering how he had pushed his brother out of the way a little too roughly.

"Oh, he's alright. It was nothing serious, just bled a lot." She waved the matter away as if it was nothing. "He is lying in the bed right next to you, as a matter of fact."

Harry quickly looked to his left and saw that, indeed David was lying there, sleeping soundly. As his eyes swept over the infirmary, however, he saw that there were more people there. On a bench at the opposite wall sat a couple fidgeting nervously while glancing at him. They quickly looked away as he stared at them. Harry's mood darkened significantly.

"You..." He spat distastefully.

* * *

**AN:** Hi, hoped you enjoyed it! I think it was a rather good chapter personally. I know it is kind of short but what better place to end? As usual, if you have anything, absolutely anything you'd like to say or talk about, I would be very happy if you reviewed! Thank you for reading and you can expect the next chapter soon. This story is progressing forward very easily for me at the moment.

P.S. The couple, I do expect you to be able to guess who they are ^^


	10. Chapter 10

**AN:** Finally, here is the next chapter. Sorry for the wait. A lot of things are happening right now and it has been a hard chapter to write. Hope you'll enjoy.

* * *

Lily and James Potter were both staring at him with wide eyes. Lily looked almost frightened while James had taken on a stubborn but sad look. It was him that finally spoke.

"Hello, Ha..."

"Why are you here?" Harry interrupted, suppressing the distaste in his voice, leaving only a cold undertone. He glanced towards David's bed. "Oh, right, you're here for him." They both flinched visibly when he said this. To his annoyance, Madam Pomfrey had left to her adjoining office as if giving them room. He'd much rather she was here, or Sirius.

"That's not true!" Lily exclaimed and took a few steps towards him. "We are here for both of you!" But Harry pretended not to hear and turned his head away. "Harry? Please, Harry! We want to talk to you!" She pleaded with him. She was now just beside him. Harry could feel her presence an arm's length away. She touched his uninjured shoulder and he flinched violently. "How could we ever..."

"Don't touch me!" He yelled out and a startled gasp escaped Lily as she jumped backwards. The place she had touched was terribly hot. He itched to rub it with his hand but he refused to do it in front of them. Did they think they could come here and just act all parenty? Acknowledge their mistakes and receive his forgiveness? No, it would not be that easy. It could not be that easy! Harry could not let them in just like that. "Leave me alone, _please_." He said coldly. He could hear David moving around at his back. Harry must have woken him up when he was yelling.

"Harry." It was James talking now. His voice was strangely warm and calm in the situation, almost... fatherly. Harry grimaced at the hearing of it. "We heard what you did, how you saved your brother and his friends from that Mountain Troll. That was such an amazing feat and we are very proud of you." Proud of him? Proud of him! Harry could laugh. What right did they have to be proud of him? "We got the letter from Dumbledore about you being ahead in your studies." James continued his attempt at making conversation when Harry didn't answer.

"What about it?" Harry challenged, turning to look at James and Lily. They couldn't do anything about it, Dumbledore had given his word of that! James seemed slightly taken aback by his challenging stare but his face put on a grim look of determination.

"We just wanted to say that we are very proud of that too. But that is not the true reason why we are so proud." Lily was nodding furiously and forcing a smile as she looked upon Harry.

"We are so proud of the person you've become, Harry." She said. "Despite our terrible treatment of you, you've become such a great person! You are taking care of David, teaching and training him, despite..." She broke off under his stare.

"And we hear you are quite popular with the ladies." James flashed a mischievous grin which quickly faded when Harry only returned a blank stare.

"You think..." Harry stopped himself. He was too weary to confront them. They didn't even deserve his making the effort to be mad at them. "I am tired, sod off." He then turned around once more, facing away from them towards the window which showed the moon shining darkly in the night sky.

"Yes, of course. Yes, we'll leave immediately. Of course, you need your sleep. We'll see you tomorrow." Lily and James nervously excused themselves. "Goodnight Harry, David." Harry waited for the footsteps to reach the door and the door to close before finally releasing the breath he had been holding.

"Harry?" His brother wondered in a careful voice but Harry didn't answer. He was rubbing the spot Lily had touched on his shoulder. No matter how much he kept at it, the burning would not disappear. He started clawing at it with his nails, eventually drawing blood but even then he didn't stop. He wanted it to hurt more. The pain from the scratching momentarily drowning out the burning sensation. "Harry! Madam Pomfrey, come quick!" His brother screamed and Madam Pomfrey was there in a second.

"Mr. Potter!" Madam Pomfrey exclaimed at his bloody sheets and fingers. "What do you think you are doing?" She admonished him and interrupted the clawing of his now rather deep wound. He didn't answer and just looked at her with his emerald eyes. There was a lot more than just his shoulders hurting and Madam Pomfrey seemed to have noticed. She sighed loudly and started cleaning and tending to his wound. "I'm afraid this will leave a scar." She was waiting for Harry to say something but he didn't. After a short while she retrieved a vial containing a purple potion, the Dreamless Sleep potion. Precisely what Harry needed! "You should really get to sleep, and you will feel all better tomorrow. Now, don't go touching that new wound of yours!" She warned him but all the same, as a precaution, she bound his arms to his sides with an Incarcerous spell.

Harry downed the whole vial but even then, sleep did not come for Harry that night.

.

Harry was staring out the window into the cloudy sky when Archie entered the hospital wing.

"Ngghh," was heard from David's bed as his sleep was disturbed by the opening door.

"Morning, mate." Archie greeted cheerfully. "I see Poppy took down my little jo- are you alright?" He had caught sight of Harry's face. Sleepless as he was, he must look even more exhausted than he felt.

"My 'parents' visited yesterday." Harry said and a shadow fell over Archie's face. Harry knew exactly what Archie felt about his parents. "They want to 'reconcile'." He said with distaste and jumped into his small meeting with his parents the day before as Archie's face grew darker and darker.

"How dare they?"Archie seethed. "After what they did!"

"It's not really what they did." Harry shrugged. "It's what they didn't do." At that moment the door to the hospital wing opened to allow Dumbledore followed by the Potters, even Désirée was with them.

"Harry!" She squealed immediately upon sight and ran to jump up on his bed. She was wearing such a gleeful expression that Harry couldn't help but laugh as he hugged his little sister. Suddenly she pushed away from him and peered at his bandaged arm. Tenderly, she traced a finger along it. "You're hurt." She stated and looked at him scathingly. He nodded.

"It'll be alright in a few days. It itches though." He grimaced in good humour and she bared her teeth at him. That was when she noticed Archie smiling at the sight of them. Quicker than Harry had time to blink, she was off him and standing at his side, a small blush painting her cheeks. She gave Harry a pointed look and then gazed at Archie. "What? Hey!" She pinched him but her eyes were still focused on Archie. There was almost something... dreamy in them. "Oh. OH!" Harry exclaimed and fought off a laugh as Daisy tried to pinch him again. "Daisy, this is Archibald Mimosa. You can call him Archibald." Archie grimaced.

"Pleasure to meet you, Archibald." She said and curtsied. Harry could barely contain his mirth.

"Please, I really hate that name. Call me Archie." Archie said with a pained note.

"But you said that you would want a cute girl to call you Archibald!" Harry exclaimed, earning himself a light cuff around the head as he laughed.

"Stop making stuff up!" Archie scolded him, knowing exactly where he was going with this.

"I'm a cute girl!" Daisy piped delightedly.

"You sure are." Harry laughed as he received another cuff around the head. "Stop that! Right, _Archibald_," He put extra emphasize on the name. "As you have probably realized, this is my little sister Désirée, or Daisy for short."

Archie gave a graceful bow to equal that of Daisy's curtsy. "Pleasure." He said and smirked. "I've heard so much about you." Daisy's ears turned beet red at that and for some reason Harry got another pointed look and pinch, making Archie laugh, only to have Daisy turn even redder. They were, however, interrupted in their theatrics by the clearing of a throat and the joyful atmosphere immediately turned sour as Harry's and Archie's attentions switched to Lily and James.

Daisy then leaned into Harry's ear and whispered with a sad note in her voice, "They have been crying a lot when they think I'm not there. Even dad." With a last shy look at Archie, she skipped happily over to jump onto David who had been watching them silently and left a stiff Harry behind. He couldn't help but have the first thought be that they deserved it. How many nights had he not cried himself to sleep? At least they had each other. Still, they should not have let Daisy see them cry. She was still just a child.

It was, in fact, Dumbledore who had interrupted them. He was now beaming at him and Archie, twinkling blue eyes flickering to Daisy. There was far too much understanding in those eyes of his for Harry's liking.

"Harry!" Lily gasped and pointed to his newly bandaged shoulder. "That wasn't there yesterday! What happened?"

"Why do you care?" Came the quiet response from Archie. The Potter's were completely taken aback by this and looked with stunned expressions at Archie. Dumbledore, however, was off talking with Daisy, distracting her. He probably assumed there would be some sort of confrontation. Well, Harry would give him a confrontation, alright.

"I'm sorry, I don't think we have met." James held out his hand and eyed Archie closely. "James Potter and Lily Potter.

"I'm Harry's best friend, now answer the question." Maybe Harry should let Archie take care of the confrontation. It was certainly interesting to watch.

"He's our son!" Lily cried out defensively.

"Since when has that mattered to you?" Archie shot back and Lily looked as defenceless as if she was trying to block a killing curse. Yes, this would be a slaughter.

"You're Archie?" James asked pointedly. Harry was a little surprised. How did they know of Archie?

"If you care about Harry, you would know that, wouldn't you?" Archie said and looked over to David who, Harry noticed had sneaked in through the privacy wards.

"We... We've changed." Lily said quickly and flashed a desperate smile towards Harry. James nodded his head jerkily in agreement. Harry couldn't help himself, he began to laugh.

"What?" He asked at their strange expressions. Even Archie was looking at him as if he had been hit on the head. That wasn't Harry, that was David. Harry had only hurt his shoulders. Harry was a little sorry to have broken up the show so early, but it was time for him to step in. "You think you can just waltz here, acting like actual parents, and claim that you are being proud of me when you have barely spoken ten words to me since I was four?" It was like a blow straight to their heads. Their forced smiles and looks of hope quickly dropped and were replaced with looks of shame.

.

David was gaping at Harry. How could he be talking to their parents like this? Had they really ignored him since he was four? He glanced up to his mother who was shaking silently, face pale. Before going to Hogwarts, David would never have believed her to be capable of something so vile. He had always thought his brother to be an attention seeking bully who only cared for Daisy. Now, he wasn't so sure.

"You!" His brother barked and looked at David. "Get lost!" David looked at Harry and hesitated. Those gaunt and tired eyes. There was pain there. And danger. Lots of danger. "Now!" Harry ordered and before David knew it, his legs had carried him out of the privacy wards and towards a giggling Daisy who was trying on Dumbledore's half moon spectacles.

"Harry told me to go away." David explained sheepishly to Dumbledore who squinted at him without his glasses. Dumbledore smiled at him comfortingly.

"This is something they greatly need, David." He said sagely. "Especially Harry."

.

"We know." Lily said while looking down.

"You know? You KNOW?" Harry's voice rose a few octaves. Puberty really was a drama queen. "Well then, that makes it alright. We can finally go back to being the happy family we were before_._" He sighed and they looked up at him, shocked. Harry mused for a second as he peered at his parents' tear streaked cheeks. "But where are the presents? You know, yesterday, it was exactly ten years ago since you started ignoring me." They flinched visibly, realizing his sarcasm. "Halloween is the anniversary of when I was no longer part of the family." They flinched again.

"Please, give us a chance..." James asked and met Harry's eyes. Harry stared at him unbelievingly until James turned away.

"I was four." He said clearly and they flinched again. "Four."

"Yes. We're sorry." Lily whispered. Harry felt like laughing.

"I was starving, you know." Harry said quietly and they all looked at him wondrously. "Sure, it didn't happen immediately, but after a few months, there was no longer a plate for me brought out to eat from." This was something he hadn't even told Archie. He had made it sound like he learned how to cook immediately. " For several weeks, I survived on whatever scraps I could get my hands on. I was thin as could be. I was dirty as I didn't have the strength to wash or change clothes. Inevitably, I got sick." The colour had completely drained from his parents' faces but Harry kept going, lost in his memories. "It was Sirius that found me, lying in my room in a pool of vomit and urine accompanied by a high fever. I had vomited before, in the kitchen, in search for food but then you screamed at me and called me a bother so I ran to my room. I didn't want to _bother_ you." His eyes were on Lily who looked sick. Harry shrugged and felt Archie's hand on his. It was comforting. "Sirius washed me, fed me and nursed me back to health. When I was healthy again, I wanted to go back home but Sirius refused. I said that it was just a mistake that you hadn't noticed. You were probably just very busy with work and taking care of little David. Now you were worried sick that I hadn't been home for weeks. Eventually, Sirius gave in but not until I had learned how to cook. Simply stuff only, of course, like pasta. When I got back, I ran into the dining room where I found you two and David laughing. There was no food for me so I asked for it. Do you know what you said?" Harry asked. Despite himself, he felt his eyes were watering. He gripped Archie's hand tightly and felt him respond. Archie was crying too.

"No, no..." James whispered as if he didn't want to know what was coming next. His hands were completely white and balled into fists and Harry thought he could see some blood. It made him think of what he had done to his shoulder only a day before. Now he knew where he got that trait from, at least. It only served to strengthen Harry's resolve.

"Yes." He said levelly. "You said to 'stop bothering you'. You didn't even noticed my absence! Your _son_ was gone for weeks and you didn't even notice." Lily had her eyes clenched shut, one hand gripping James' arm painfully. James didn't even wince at Lily's nails digging into him. There was an eerie silence enveloping them.

"We know we can't undo our faults." James said earnestly.

"But, could you please give us a chance?" Lily asked hopefully? Harry stared at them in disbelief. What did they think the point of his telling them his story was?

"No." He said simply.

There was a slight cough and Harry noticed Dumbledore entering the wards. Daisy was sitting on one of the hospital beds with David, eating chocolate frogs and comparing cards.

"Lily, James." Dumbledore acknowledged his old students.

"We tried." James sighed and Lily nodded. "Thank you for the opportunity, Albus."

"If you would be so kind as to allow me some time with young Harry, then." Albus proposed and they nodded, walking slowly out of the privacy charms. Lily quickly ran out of the hospital wing, not letting Daisy and David see her face while James sat down on an empty bed with his head in his hands.

Harry and Archie looked at Dumbledore suspiciously. Had the old man planned it all out? They were a little surprised when he sighed and sat down heavily on Harry's bed.

"Harry." He said heavily. "Could you possibly give your parents a chance to redeem themselves?" This, Harry had expected. Still, he was a little disappointed. The old man should know better.

"No." He said flatly.

"Is there, truly, no chance?" Dumbledore asked resignedly. It seemed he was leading them somewhere and Harry took a moment to search the Headmaster's eyes for some sort of sigh as to where. The only indication of anything was that they had started twinkling slightly.

"Give one good reason as to why he should give them the time of the day after all this time." Archie challenged Dumbledore. Harry was a little surprised as to how Archie had been quiet until now. Dumbledore looked slightly taken aback by the question but his eyes had begun to twinkle madly.

"They are your family..." Archie's snort interrupted him.

"Some family." He muttered.

"They share your blood." Dumbledore continued. This time, it was Harry who snorted.

"Blood has never been important in the Potter family. Maybe if you were talking to the Flints, they would care. Then again, Flint is definitely half-troll." Dumbledore gave him a disapproving look but Harry thought he saw the corner of the old man's mouth twitch slightly.

"They really regret what they have done. They will continue to grieve until you forgive them." Harry looked at the old Headmaster, wondering what his point was. Dumbledore sighed. "Could you live with that, Harry?"

"Yup." Harry shrugged. He wasn't about to feel any guilt on _their_ behalf.

"What about yourself, Harry? Don't you want parents? A family?" Harry stopped.

"That has been my dream for many years." He noticed Dumbledore sitting a little taller but he slumped again as Harry shook his head. "But not anymore." Dumbledore let out his heaviest sig yet.

"What if..." he began slowly. "What if you didn't do it for yourself or your parents sake?" He asked finally.

"What do you mean?" Archie asked and exchanged unknowing glances with Harry.

"What if you did it for someone else's sake?"

"Who would I do it for?" Harry asked dubiously.

"Désirée." Dumbledore answered.

Harry didn't know what to say. He looked at Archie who looked back with a blank face. He looked at Dumbledore whose damned eyes were twinkling as if they were stars in the midnight sky. For Désirée?

.

Lily came back from the bathroom all cleaned up. She was still a complete mess inside, but at least she didn't look it anymore. She could not let Daisy and David see her like that. What would they think?

When she entered the hospital wing she saw Dumbledore was entertaining Daisy while James was sitting on the same bed as when she had left but now David was sitting next to him, looking at him worriedly. She glanced over to Harry's bed and saw him talking figuratively with his friend... Archie? Oh, she so wished to go over there and hug him ten years worth of hugs. If only there were time-turners that could go back ten years. She wouldn't hesitate for a second to use one. Her oldest son looked troubled. Son... She didn't have the right to call him that.

She walked up to Dumbledore and touched his shoulder, never taking her eyes off Harry. Dumbledore looked at her sadly in response.

"I tried, Lily." He said. "I tried." She nodded absently. He had done much more than was required of him. They had really brought this upon themselves.

"Thank you, Albus. You have been very kind." She said and her old Headmaster smiled sadly.

She went to tell James that it was time for them to go but just as she was about to touch him, his head flew up and he looked over her shoulder. She heard footsteps and spun around to see Harry standing behind her.

One of his arms hung limply to his side, the one that Poppy had been forced to vanish the bones in, and the other was moving around tenderly. His friend was standing very close to him and eyeing him warily, ready to help in any way that he could. What made her blood chill, however, was Harry's eyes. So lively, until now. There was no love there. Only...distaste. Distaste for her and distaste for James. Worst of all, it was justified.

He opened his mouth to speak.

* * *

**AN:** Wellwell. Despite it taking so long to write and not being the longest chapter, I rather like it. And it ended with a rather nice cliffhanger as well, if you ask me. Hope you liked it as well! As always, if there is anything, you are more than welcome to review! I am off! Will try to post more chapters this next week! The next chapter on my other story is even harder to write than this one was!


	11. Chapter 11

**AN:** I haven't actually been that slow in updating this one as I have been with my other fanfiction so you won't get an apology from me here! But I guess I could still be faster if everything works out well. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

* * *

Harry opened his mouth to speak. He wasn't happy about this. Dumbledore was such a cunning old man to bring up Désirée. The man would probably have done well in Slytherin. Désirée did bring up a lot of feelings in Harry. If it wasn't for her, Harry wouldn't have such troubles deciding. The fact stood, however, that he could not just forgive them so easily, not even for her.

"I want to give us a chance." He said slowly with a forced smile, punctuating every word with a deep breath. Lily and James, his parents, both let out deep breaths and before he could react, he was enveloped in a tight hug from his mother, quickly followed by his father. He didn't respond. Once, there was a time where he would have given everything to receive such an embrace from his parents. Now? He wasn't so sure. Lily drew back to look at him and he noticed that they were of equal height. The last time she had looked at him this closely, he barely reached her waist. He was a little stunned to see happiness in her eyes and something he could only define as... love. It even made his next words slightly painful. Slightly, as if bitten by a bug. Of no matter. "It's not for you, nor for me, but for Daisy. I do this only because of Daisy."

"We... understand." She said a little resignedly but did not let go of him. He stiffly laid his working arm around her and James.

"I don't think you do, _mother_." He hissed. "This..." He tightened the embrace slightly. "Is an act, to be put up only when in front of the others." He felt more than heard the sharp intake of breath. He could also feel his shirt damp where her head was resting. They had no time to answer, however.

"I want to hug Harry too!" Came Daisy's words and Harry let out a breathy laugh as he separated from his parents and knelt down to hug his little sister. Had he been about to cry? Surely not! He looked at David who returned his gaze with a curious expression. How much did he know? How much did he _understand_? He was, after all, only eleven. She almost jumped on him and he let out a grunt as his clawed shoulder took the brunt of the attack. When she looked at him he worriedly he laughed.

"You grow ever bigger! Have you gained weight?" She ignored him.

"Will you come back home this Christmas?" She asked hopefully. Harry put her down and looked to his parents. They held each other and gazed at him in return, once again tears on their cheeks.

"Yes, I will." He said, turning back to Daisy.

"Now! It is high time you let the patients rest!" Madam Pomfrey had left her office and begun to shoo the visitors out. "How long have you been here? The patients cannot recover properly without rest and you have been here for far too long!" She turned to Dumbledore and began on him who looked slightly humble. "Albus, you promised me half an hour! I expected them long gone before I came out!"

"Goodbye Harry." Daisy said during the tumult and gave him a kiss on his cheek before joining her parents in leaving the infirmary. They stopped just before the door and gazed at him. He waved at them and they left.

"I am terribly sorry, Poppy." Dumbledore excused himself. "I will make it up to you and get you those pop tarts you like so much next I can. Ahh, but it is not the pop tarts so much as the person you buy them from, isn't it?" Harry could have sworn that Madam Pomfrey turned a little red.

"Get out!" She shouted.

"Of course!" Dumbledore said and stopped in the doorway. "By the way, Harry. One hundred points to Ravenclaw for saving three fellow students as well as a perfectly executed Glacius Tria!" He then escaped through the door before Poppy could say any more, leaving her there with her mouth gaping.

"That man!" Poppy seethed and slammed the door. She then began mumbling some very ugly words that Harry didn't think David should hear. She looked at him who had also been standing with his mouth open until then. 100 points! That must be a record! "Why aren't you in bed?" She remarked and Harry hurried back to his bed as fast as he could. He could see Archie in the background sneaking away without being noticed. "Now lie still as I check on your wounds."

His regrowing arm was recovering just fine. Unfortunately, his self-inflicted wound on his other shoulder would leave a rather ugly scar. Nothing he couldn't live with, however. He would be allowed out of the infirmary the very next day. It wasn't until then that he noticed a small pile of get-well gifts at the foot of his bed. He smiled. Look at that. His fans hadn't forgotten him after all.

.

"So, for Daisy?"

"An _act_ for Daisy." Harry said, fiddling with his thumbs.

"I still don't think they deserve it, even if it is just pretend." Archie said levelly. Harry sighed. If Archie had his way, then there wouldn't be anything left of Harry's parents at all. Something Harry wouldn't really mind, except for the fact that Daisy would be devastated. And he wouldn't be able to bear that. To Harry, however, it would have been as the death of two strangers. Two not-very-liked strangers.

"They don't." Harry agreed. "But she does, and I want her to have the perfect childhood I never had." Eventually, Archie gave in.

"Well then, can you walk yourself or do I need to carry you?" He smiled and Harry grimaced.

"Let's tell them."

And so, he rose from the infirmary bed to inform his parents of his decision.

.

Harry woke up and felt that he was not alone. Holding his newly grown hand was another hand. A dark hand.

"Angelina?" He asked.

"Good morning, Harry!" She said with hungry glint to her eye. She had been busy unpacking and snacking on one of the chocolate boxes he had received. Harry took his wand and checked the chocolate for love potion.

"Angelina..." Harry said warily.

"What is it, love?" She asked and climbed on top of him. Harry couldn't speak. He tried to push her off but found his hands and feet bound by some invisible force. His wand was lying right next to his ear, out of reach. She bent down to kiss his neck.

"Poppy!" Harry shouted only to have Angelina's mouth covering his. He managed to break free and looked to David who was staring at them with open mouth. "Help!" Harry yelped as Angelina began to take off her clothes.

David panicky jumped up out of his bed and ran into Madam Pomfrey's office. She came just as Angelina began working on Harry's own clothes. She was in her nightgown which made Harry wonder just what time it was.

"Miss Johnson!" She gasped with wide eyes.

"Help!" Harry yelped again and Poppy quickly separated them with her wand. Harry let out a deep breath.

"What is happening here?" Poppy demanded.

"She ate a love potion." Harry explained as he found himself no longer bound. He eyed Angelina carefully who looked back at him hungrily. She finally noticed their positions and her lip began to tremble.

"You don't want me?" She asked fearfully and Harry gave Poppy a frightened look.

"Do something, please!"

"Hold her for a minute." Poppy said and Harry quickly grabbed his wand to hold Angelina in place. It was difficult not to look into her tear-filled eyes. Poppy came back half a minute later with a dark blue vial which she forcefully poured down the resisting Angelina's throat before she went back to her office. A few seconds passed and Angelina kept looking at Harry with those sad hungry eyes until, finally, they became their usual clear brown. Harry sighed and released her. She stumbled slightly before catching herself. She shook her head and looked up with an amused smile and a very red face.

"Well, that was embarrassing." She laughed and Harry smiled reassuringly. Even though he didn't know her that well, this was the Angelina he was used to. She looked down at her state of undress and then looked at David who quickly turned his head, blushing up to his ears. She wrinkled her nose. "Note to self: never eat anything of Harry's that has been gifted by someone else." She smiled at Harry. "I thought that was just a rumour."

"If only that were true." Harry grimaced. "The fool who sent it even made the mistake of having the consumer fall in love with me, instead of the sender."

"Rookie mistake." Angelina joked while putting on her clothes. "Well, seeing that I have completely embarrassed myself, I will now leave."

"Wait!" Harry called after her and she stopped. "Would you like to go with me on the next Hogsmeade weekend?" He asked quickly. Angelina looked at him and pursed her lips.

"One night, nothing more?" She asked, blushing a little at the boldness of her words. Harry looked at her, a little stunned. He _had_ said those words, hadn't he? "Sorry, Harry. I promised Alicia." She said a little sadly, leaving a dejected Harry with his confused little brother alone in the infirmary.

.

"You asked her out?" Archie laughed as he swung his stick down with such force that Harry stumbled backwards when attempting to block it. Harry shot an annoyed look at David who had told Archie all about the confusing meeting with Angelina just a day prior. David himself had started his stretching exercises to conclude the training. Harry's attention was quickly required elsewhere, however, as Archie came swinging with his stick. "You've gotten rusty." He said and twisted his stick slightly to knock Harry's out of his hand and stopped only inches from his neck. Harry stepped back and rolled the joints in his newly grown arm testily.

"Still feels weird." Harry said as he joined David in his stretching. He hadn't won a single bout between him and Archie. He still wasn't sure if he was grateful or displeased with Archie for not going easy on him.

"Well, it is still new, so that's not surprising." Archie said and then let out a shiver. "We're going to have to move in soon. It's getting cold."

Harry nodded before grabbing his things.

They made their way up to the castle in a jovial silence.

"And she rejected you." Archie finally blew out in a silent whistle that made David laugh which turned to a strangling noise after Harry gave him a glare and put his hand on David's shoulder and squeezed a little too hard for it to be comfortable.

They entered the Great Hall to see it filled with students having dinner and, without warning, Harry separated from Archie and David to approach the staff table, leaving them to wonder at what he was doing.

He first went to McGonagall to ask her a question about animagus transformation, one she gladly answered, before finally turning to the Headmaster. He bent down on one knee and spread his arms in a flourish. Dumbledore always was one for theatrics.

"Professor Headmaster, sir!" He said loudly, earning the attention of several students and curious expressions from the teachers, before turning his to look down on the floor. Dumbledore had looked mostly amused but he didn't say anything so Harry carried on. "I believe that my services to the school require a reward." Harry smirked inwardly. Now the whole school was focusing its attention onto him. He could _feel_ it.

"My brave student, what reward might you deem worthy of such a service that you have performed for the school?" Dumbledore's words sailed through the hall as Harry suppressed a snicker.

"I wish to change the rules of Quidditch." He said simply and looked up, failing to suppress another snicker as several gasps were heard throughout the Great Hall, both behind him and from the teachers table.

"And what change would this be?" Dumbledore asked curiously.

"Albus, surely you can't agree to this..." McGonagall protested along with several students but she was silenced by a raised hand from Dumbledore. _Sorry Minnie_, Harry thought.

"I would listen to his request, Minerva." Dumbledore said levelly and swept his gaze over the student body, shutting up anyone who might have thought of protesting further.

"A minor change, Professor." Harry excused to McGonagall before, once again, addressing Dumbledore. "I wish to change the point system so when the seeker catches the snitch, his or hers team will be awarded fifty points instead of one hundred and fifty." McGonagall opened her mouth to protest but then shut it again, adopting a thoughtful expression. The reaction behind him wasn't nearly so collected. The students one after one had begun to shout their protests. More than one was cursing him for ruining their sport. Harry rose to face the students. To his surprise, all the respective Quidditch teams refrained from partaking in the shouting but were rather eyeing him warily, aside from the seekers. They seemed to burn with hatred, except for Darnell. They probably thought he tried to take away their _glorious_ prestige.

Well, his dislike for the seeker position wasn't really a secret by now. At least he didn't try to banish the position altogether. After careful consideration and arguing with Darnell and Archie, he had come to the conclusion that the seeker position in itself wasn't that bad. It was actually a rather exciting way to end a Quidditch game and one of the charms with Quidditch was that it could last five minutes as well as a few months. Taking away the seeker position would have required a time limit to be added to conclude the game instead and Harry couldn't quite agree with that. No, the problem was that the reward for catching the snitch was just too disproportionate. A problem that Harry would be fixing right now if he got his will through.

Several bangs finally brought the hall to silence.

"And why would you like to make this change, Mr. Potter?" Dumbledore asked mildly.

Harry, instead of turning to answer the headmaster, addressed the students instead. He walked to the edge of the raised podium and silently conjured up a stand and paper in which he stood behind. He looked down at the paper in front of him and began.

"Fellow students!" He swept his gaze over the filled hall of students looking at him with mixed expressions of awe, thoughtfulness and spite. "As it is now, Quidditch is a faulty sport." Several people gasped and Harry thought he heard a chuckle behind him. "No, it is true. As it is now, the role of chaser and keeper almost doesn't matter." _Unless the chasers are Ravenclaws,_ he added silently. Several students began to protest but Harry filtered his next words with magic, successfully silencing them. "I want you to think carefully. By catching the snitch, the respective seekers team is almost always guaranteed a win. A team with the worst chasers of the history could win a game with a good enough seeker. Now let me ask you, is Quidditch a one-man sport?" There were several shakings of the head and Harry allowed himself a smile. "Then why is it so dependent on one person?" He paused for effect and could almost see the wheels in the minds of the students working.

"You just want to make it easier for Ravenclaw to win!" Someone shouted from the Slytherin direction and was supported by murmurs around the hall. They were met with some resistance, however. Some were already won over, then.

"Do you truly think me as petty as that?" Harry asked in return but he didn't wait for an answer but looked down at the paper in front of him before looking up again. "By reducing the points gained for capturing the snitch, the game will become more exciting while still keeping all the good qualities that makes Quidditch, well, Quidditch." He could see that most were agreeing with him now. "Essentially, the game will be the same, just putting more emphasis on the chasers and will thus, become more exciting." He then finally turned to Dumbledore. "What say you, Headmaster?"

Dumbledore stayed silent for a moment. He was most definitely a man for theatrics. "I..." Everyone were literally hanging onto his every word. "Will grant you this reward." There was a loud uproar, mostly positive, and Harry bowed respectfully to the old man with twinkling eyes before sauntering out of the Great Hall. He felt his stomach rumbling but didn't return to the Great Hall. It just wouldn't have as much effect to go back there because of a hungry stomach. Instead, he made his way to the kitchens.

.

It was finally time for the next Hogsmeade weekend and Cai had approached him about that date he owed her. He had completely forgotten about it when he had asked Angelina out and he felt slightly guilty for it. Slightly.

They made their way to the carriages in awkward silence. Well, awkward for Cai, as Harry had his mind on what his brother was doing. He had namely seen David and his two friends Ron and Hermione, ever since the troll incident they had been inseparable, sneak around the castle. He had heard them in the library, whispering about someone named Nicholas Flamel. He thought he recognized the name, but he couldn't quite place from where.

"Harry. Harry!"

He shook his head to clear it. "What?" He asked looking at Cai's face only inches from his own.

"Have you been listening to any word I just said?" He didn't answer but he did have the decency to blush. "Thought so." She sniffed and promptly made her way up on the carriage.

"So, you were saying?" Harry asked as he followed.

"Keep zoning out like that and I will actually catch up to you, Potter." She teased and then mumbled just audibly. "Of course, unless I'm too busy gazing at your dreamy face."

Harry let out a surprised laugh and Cai's face immediately turned red as she realized she had been heard. He had forgotten how fun hanging out with Cai could be. He let out a content sigh and relaxed visibly as he let go of all the burdens. His brother, the extra class work and especially his parents were taking a rather large toll on him.

"I visited you in the infirmary, you know." Cai said after a moment.

"I didn't get any gift from you as I recall." Harry said with a raised eyebrow.

"Did you want a gift from me?" Cai challenged back with her own raised eyebrow.

"Of course I did! I love gifts, as long as they're not laced with love potion, that is." Harry answered and she giggled slightly. Was there something she was getting to? It seemed that she wasn't done talking.

"Anyway, you were asleep so I tried visiting you again and, well... I kind of... saw your parents there."

Harry felt his smile leave his lips and he turned all cold. How much had she seen? Had she heard anything? Please, let her have only seen them in passing. But why would she then bring it up? She was watching him very thoroughly, no doubt she had noticed his pale face. He closed his eyes and sat upright. As if she was reading his mind she hurriedly continued.

"I didn't hear anything! But I couldn't help but notice how you acted so differently towards them."

"Different compared to what?" Harry asked with his eyes still closed. He could hear the chill in his voice but he couldn't do anything about it.

"Well, to the normal bright and easygoing you." She said and Harry smiled a little coldly but he didn't answer. "Is there a problem between you and your parents."

Harry snorted and opened his eyes, startling Cai by the intensity of them. "That's an understatement if I've ever heard one." Cai seemed to be slightly insecure but she pressed on.

"Does it have anything to do with your brother?" She asked and Harry couldn't help but give her a curious look. She flushed a little. "Well, it's just by how you were acting towards him during the beginning of the term and how you refused to talk about him at all for our first years of school."

_I guess it is a pretty obvious conclusion to arrive at_, Harry mused as he thought about how he had acted whenever someone wanted to learn about the _Boy-Who-Lived_. All they had to do was connect the dots, something that would hardly be difficult for Cai. She was, after all, second only to him in their year.

"It does involve David, but not through any fault of his."

"What did they do?" Cai asked and leaned in closer.

"Nothing much." Harry shrugged and almost smiled at Cai's confused frown. _So cute. _If it wasn't for the topic of conversation, he would probably be laughing by now. "They didn't do anything. In fact, that was the problem. They ignored me for about ten years... until now." He didn't know why he told her, he just did. His deepest secret, so easily confided in someone he was now on his second date with.

"What do you mean 'ignored you'?" She asked with a frown on her face.

"Well, first they simply told me to go away and stop being a bother. Then they stopped cooking for me. Then they didn't even notice when I was sick and away for weeks and lastly they stopped interacting with me at all." He said casually.

"Are you pulling my leg?" She asked while eyeing him suspiciously.

"Would you like a wizard's oath?" Harry returned and pulled out his wand. "I, Harry-" He was stopped by Cai's hands on his arm.

"That won't be necessary." She said and paused to take in all that he had just said. "How old where you when this happened?" She asked shakily.

"It began on Halloween when I was four." He answered, closing his eyes at the cold appearing in his voice once again. He heard Cai gasp and then sniff.

"How can you speak about it like that?" She asked, her voice breaking.

It was his life and she was the one breaking into tears. Well, he guessed it wasn't that weird for someone to break into tears after imagining his sob-story of a life, even if his retelling of it had been rather dull and lifeless.

"Well, what do you want me to do? Break down and cry?" Harry answered, the heat in his voice rising drastically. "I already did that in the infirmary and I'm sick and tired of it!" He noticed that the carriage had stopped. They were on the outskirts of Hogsmeade.

As fast as he could, he jumped down and ran through the village, bumping into as many people as he could count. He could hear Cai shouting his name behind him but he didn't stop. Only once he reached the shrieking shack did he stop. He climbed over the fence and ran towards the house where his parents' and Sirius' friend Remus had turned into a werewolf every full moon during their time at Hogwarts. He stopped right in front of it and sat down on the hard frosty grass. Why did she have to bring up his parents? Why did he tell her about them? How did he expect she would react? 'Oh, your parents really suck!' and then move on with the date? Not bloody likely. He should have just come up with something to change the subject.

This date really sucked so far.

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**AN: **I hope you like it! This is actually a chapter I really enjoyed! As usual, if there is anything (if you want examples, just refer to my AN in my previous chapter) you are welcome to review! I will also add that the more reviews I get, the more motivation I will receive! That really is the truth. If it weren't for you guys, I would probably be much slower in my updates!


	12. Chapter 12

**AN:** Hi guys! Nothing special this time. Just hoping you enjoy it!

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Harry was sitting with his head between his knees, watching the grass defrost beneath him from his body heat and felt himself being filled with something that could only be described as peacefulness. Nature was nice like that. You could watch it for any measure of time without getting bored and just let your mind wander. It was as good as any Occlumency exercise. Like now he was thinking how peculiar it was how he had become readily attracted to Angelina and her funny little quirks while Cai, to whom he also felt some level of attraction, was the one that actually managed to get under his skin and open up his well-protected shell as if his defences were non-existent. They were two very different people.

He heard someone sit down in front of him but he didn't look up. It could only be one of two people, Archie or Cai. Frankly, Harry wasn't sure whether he wanted to meet either of them. They sat in silence for a while and Harry excluded the possibility of it being Archie. He definitely wouldn't have been able to keep his trap shut for such a long time.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"You didn't mean to ask me out during that embarrassing visit in the infirmary?" Angelina's voice interrupted.

Harry raised his head to see Angelina sitting on her knees in front of him wearing that quirky little smile that was only hers, her brown eyes watching him intently. He tried not to let his surprise show too much.

"Something like that." He smiled, thinking of all the teasing he'd endured at the hands of Archie. For a short while, the only thing that could be heard was the whistling of the wind and the creaking of the shrieking shack.

"Angie! You coming?" Harry heard a voice behind him, probably Alicia.

"Just a minute!" Angelina called back and addressed Harry with a smile. "She doesn't dare to cross the fence." Harry snorted in response.

"The shrieking shack hasn't been haunted for thirteen years."

Angelina gave him a look that said nothing if not 'Oh yeah? And how do you know that?' but she didn't say anything on the subject.

"So, you going to tell me why the great Harry Potter, brother to Boy-Who-Lived, the Quidditch Revolutionary, Scion of House Potter and probably some other titles is out here sulking alone in front of a house that hasn't been haunted for thirteen years?"

"Quidditch Revolutionary?" Harry tasted the words. "I rather like the sound of that."

"Of course all he heard was the Quidditch one." Angelina said and rolled her eyes.

"You're no different." Harry shot back with eyes full of mirth.

"I guess not." Angelina sighed as another short pause filled the air.

"Angie!" Alicia called again but this time the person in question didn't answer.

"They're going to gossip, you know?" She said. "Harry Potter running from his date and then spending some time cuddling with Angelina Johnson, the most beautiful girl in Hogwarts."

Harry's eyes widened in mild surprise before another snort left his lips. _So she knows about my date? Can't I have a bloody private life in this place? _"I've never cared for the gossip in this place anyway. I guess it can be useful but it is mostly a bother."

To answer this, Angelina leaned in close to Harry and whispered, "Well, is it just gossip?" before standing up abruptly, her white teeth showing in a dazzling smile.

"The cuddling or you being the most beautiful girl in Hogwarts?" Harry wondered out loud and Angelina let out a short laugh.

"Speaking of the devil." She mumbled and then shouted. "Alicia! Wait for me!" Before running off.

As soon as she left, Harry turned around to see Cai running up to him. She was panting, hard, and upon seeing her rosy cheeks Harry was suddenly shot with a pang of guilt. He stood up and did the only thing he could think of. Envelop her in an embrace.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have run off like that."

"You shouldn't have." She agreed into his chest, her own heaving up and down heavily.

"How about some warm butterbeer?" He asked and she nodded, tickling him with her nose in the process.

They walked back into Hogsmeade, Harry's arm around Cai's shoulders. Without warning, Harry suddenly turned into one of the buildings and before Cai had the opportunity to protest, a very fat lady had welcomed them and led them to a table in a corner.

"Why are we at this place?" Cai hissed at him as she looked around at the couples littered around the café. To Harry's surprise, he saw Roger Davies sitting together with a Hufflepuff third year and they were rather... intimate.

"I just wanted to get away from prying ears and eyes, I guess." Harry shrugged and ordered two cups of tea from the very big woman that assumedly was Madam Puddifoot. It was true, they sat out of sight from the windows, which was a relief. The only ones who could actually see them were the other guests and they were all occupied with each other. Madam Puddifoot's truly lives up to its reputation. Their attentions were brought back to each other after looking around for a short while.

"I'm sorry." They both said in unison before breaking out into laughter. Harry brought his teacup to his lips only to quickly bring it down onto the table with a grimace. Was this tea with sugar or sugar with tea? It was painfully obvious that the guests did not come here to Madam Puddifoot for her great tea.

"Once again, I shouldn't have run off like that. It's just... my parents is a sensitive subject..." He said after finally getting rid of the horrible taste in his mouth. Cai didn't answer immediately. Instead, she sniffed her tea and wrinkled her nose before putting it down calmly.

"Is it really that bad?" She asked and Harry nodded. "Then I am also sorry for pressing the matter. It's a very personal matter and I am being too nosy." She looked down at her knees.

"Apology accepted!" Harry said and leaned over the table to tenderly raise Cai's cheek. She looked up and he leaned in towards her, feeling himself falling into her deep purple eyes. Actually, it wasn't just a feeling. He _was_ falling. The table wasn't able to support the lopsided weight distribution and had tipped over, ending with Harry on the floor with two cups of lukewarm sugar blended with a little tea all over him. All of Madam Puddifoot's were now staring at them and Harry sat up before giving a sheepish grin. Cai soon burst into heavy laughter, only to be joined by the rest of the café shortly after.

After letting them all have their laughs, Harry stood up and cast a scourgify on himself, effectively cleaning up the sweet mess. He left a few galleons, more than enough, and held out his arm elegantly for Cai to take. "M'lady." She laughed once again as they exited the café.

The rest of the date went smoothly. Once again, Harry bought way too much candy for himself and refused to admit that he did it for his little brother. They never met up with Archie and Viola but Harry doubted they even noticed.

This time, however, they chose to walk home and stretch their legs in the chill air. They were a bit earlier than normal and thus, they found that they had the road all to themselves. Despite this, they walked very close, to share each other's warmth on this chilly early winter day. At least, that is what they would have said if anyone asked.

"Harry?" Cai asked from under his arm.

"Hmm?" Harry hummed, in the process of watching two hares playing with each other.

"Who was that girl you were talking with?"

"What?" Harry's head snapped away from the hares and he focused on Cai. He gave voice to his thoughts. "What girl?"

"The girl who you were talking with at the Shrieking Shack." Cai said, a little irritably.

"Oh!" Realization dawned upon him. "That was just Angelina." He returned to watching the hares playing, only to find them standing perfectly still and facing the forest.

"Angelina? Angelina Johnson, the Gryffindor chaser?" She asked and Harry nodded in affirmation. "Why was she talking to you?"

This was starting to feel like an interrogation."I guess we've gotten to know each other lately." Now that was a diplomatic answer. "She saw me sulking in front of the Shrieking Shack and cheered me up some." The pair of hares were _still_ standing perfectly still. Now that was just unnatural.

"Oh!" Cai said and pondered for a second. "I don't like her." Who would have figured?

"Why is that?" Harry asked, not really interested in the answer. He had stopped now and strained his eyes to peer into wherever it was that was causing the hares to act up like that.

"I don't know." Harry could hear the frown in Cai's voice. "Instinct? It just doesn't feel right."

"I see." Harry answered, still peering into the forest. What was that in front of them? There was definitely something on the ground there. It was of a dull white but it felt like it should have been more pure in colour. As if it had lost some of its shimmery gleam.

"Harry?" Cai asked, a few steps in front of him. She had finally noticed that he had stopped. Her eyes wandered to follow his and she first noticed the two hares. Finally, her eyes rested on the same object that Harry was busy gazing at. She gasped. "Is that...?"

"I think so." Harry confirmed and they walked closer. There was a silvery substance pooled around the dull white creature. Harry knelt by it so he could take it all in. He didn't trust himself to stand at the moment. The creature itself was that of a horse. It had golden hooves and one other distinct feature that put it apart from any other horse. The horn. The brilliant silvery white horn. Not even death could take away its brilliance. Harry could feel tears welling up in his eyes.

"Who would do such a thing?" Cai gave a shaky voice to their thoughts.

"I have no idea." Harry answered truthfully. It just looked so... innocent. And they were supposed to be stunningly fast as well.

"It's recent." Cai stated after a short moment.

"What?"

"The wound, it's fresh." She said and pointed towards the strange wound at the unicorn's neck. It was completely shredded but it didn't look as if it was done by teeth. It was much too cleanly cut. Could this have been done with a wand? He heard a twig snap from the forest and his head immediately shot up, scanning the forest.

"That means the one responsible is still nearby. Go get Hagrid, or a teacher. I'll stay here."

"Won't that be dangerous? What if the thing responsible comes back?"

"It obviously killed the unicorn for a reason." Harry somehow managed to reason. "There are many parts of a unicorn that can be used. I'm not about to allow that!"

"But-"

"Who do you think stands a better chance against this thing? Me or you?" She didn't answer. "Now, go get a teacher so that if it comes back, I might not have to fight it at all!" She was off, running at top speed towards the castle. Luckily, it wasn't too far away and she should be making good time.

Harry took a closer look at the wound. It did seem entirely possible to have been executed through a few cutting curses. They must have been incredibly dark to have been able to shred a unicorn so much.

His hand was shaking as he stroked the unicorn's back. It was strangely enough, still warm. Was it that recent? He closed his eyes and rested his hand on the unicorn's neck, just above the wound. It was... pulsing. Pulsing? A pulse? Dead things didn't have pulses. He quickly brought out his wand to do a diagnostic charm and he felt that he could skip with glee. There was life! The unicorn was still alive. It wouldn't be for long, though. It had already lost a significant amount and it was still losing more.

_Please Cai, hurry up!_ He shouted mentally.

He ripped off his coat and wrapped it around the beautiful creatures thick neck. The unicorn winced slightly at the touch of his coat around its wound. He performed a healing spell but it didn't seem to have any effect. Harry wasn't necessarily bad at healing spells, he just wasn't as good at it as he was with most other things. Besides, dark curses capable of harming a unicorn this way would probably not react to any healing charm that Harry knew of.

The unicorn shifted slightly and Harry noticed that its eyes were open. He quickly repositioned himself so that his head was level with the unicorn's. He peered into the clear black orbs that were the unicorn's eyes. They were full of pain and fear. Here Harry was panicking and it wasn't even him in pain. He could only begin to imagine how the unicorn might feel. It was a wonder it still was alive with that wound in its throat. Its eyes had slightly changed now. The fear and pain was still there but there was also an eerie calm.

Without thinking, Harry took a deep breath and opened his own mind. He could feel the presences of the hares, still rooted to the same spot, but he quickly focused upon the only thing of importance at the moment. It wasn't hard to reach out to the unicorn. It's mind was as a beacon in the dark. He approached it and found it enveloped by impenetrable barriers. He prodded it gently, as if knocking on the front door.

_I won't hurt you._ _I have sent for help. Everything will be alright_. He tried to show the words through his own mind and hoped the unicorn would be able to see them, and even less likely, understand them. To his surprise, a gentle hole opened in the impenetrable barrier, right in front of him. Harry could feel the presence of the unicorn's mind even stronger now that he had a way in. He didn't even hesitate before going through the opening. It immediately closed behind him, effectively locking in his mind until the unicorn itself either released him or... died.

The unicorn's mind was overwhelming. Harry's first reaction was that it was so vast. Many times bigger and more intricate than his own rather well-constructed mindscape. It had everything nature had to offer and it was all going to ruin. The land was wrought with a raging blood red flame and the water suffered from a disease. Harry could see remnants of what must have been a forest as wide as the forbidden forest, a pool of sickly green water as wide as an ocean, a pair of snowy mountains melting in the distance and dark stormy clouds in the sky. They all gave off the feeling of pain and fear, no doubt results from the curses it suffered under.

He saw that a few sectors of the forest were still unaffected and quickly travelled to one of the larger ones. As soon as he arrived he was filled with the sort of peacefulness that only nature could give you. He could still feel the despair of the flames trying to spread its wrath and the mindscape thought back, attempting to stop at every tree it devoured.

He walked to the middle of the patch of trees yet undamaged and found a clear meadow that shone brightly. He looked up to see a hole in the clouds up above and the sun shining through it. Only upon this very meadow. Harry couldn't even feel all the suffering and pain that was slowly coming closer from every direction. He kept glancing up at the blinding sun, wondering at the brilliance of it and how the unicorn had been able to create such a place. Suddenly there was a spot in the middle of it. It grew larger and larger to reveal the unicorn itself, sailing down from the heavens.

Harry could only stare in awe as the unicorn landed next to him. It was almost as dazzling as the sun it came from. He looked up once again and saw that the hole in the clouds was still there, yet there was no sun. Maybe it was _more_ than almost as dazzling as the sun had been. The white that Harry had thought to be so dull was as pure as could be that it was hard to look at. The horn was even _brighter_ and its eyes were as dark and deep as a clear and starless night sky. It took a few steps around Harry, fitting into nature as surely as the moon. He could only stare in amazement at the brilliance of such a creature. It stopped right before him, it's own head level with his, just like in the real world.

"What do you want?" Harry asked. "Why did you let me in?"

In response, it came closer in a sweeping gesture and touched its nuzzle to Harry's neck, mirroring the spot where its own injury was positioned. Harry felt a tingle spread from the neck and run through his body. It filled his senses. He could smell its sweetness, feel its radiant power and get blinded by its glowing figure. Slowly, ever so slowly, Harry brought up his own hand to touch where its wound was located. In this dreamscape, it wasn't nearly as bad as in the real world, but it was still marked, the skin being slightly duller. As he touched it, both he and the unicorn winced with pain and the fire all around them magnified.

"Okay, no touching there." Harry murmured to himself. Instead, he brought his fingers through the unicorn's mane and immediately the fulfilling feelings from before returned to him. The raging fire had never felt more distant. Once again he peered into its clear black eyes. This time, he didn't venture into the unicorn's mind but the unicorn poured itself into him. He closed his eyes only to feel his mind lurch before he opened them again.

He was back in his own mindscape, the grassy hills flowing all around him. It reminded him of the movie _Inception._ Was he inside his mind which was also inside the unicorn's? The unicorn in question was slowly walking around him, exploring his mindscape with its keen eyes. It was nowhere near as natural and elaborate as the unicorn's and the contrast almost made Harry blush. The unicorn jerked its head towards the walls of his fortress and began to gallop towards it. Harry, being in his own mindscape, could easily keep tact with the fast creature. It was then that he noticed the unicorn's wound being much clearer than before. It was slowly getting redder and redder and the skin was beginning to break. With it, there seemed to come a lot of pain as the unicorn winced every time its golden hooves made contact with the ground.

_It's getting weaker._ Harry thought. _Where in the name of Merlin is Cai?_

"Don't worry, help will soon arrive." Is, however what he told the unicorn. In response, it snorted weakly.

It stopped just outside the city walls and looked up to the top where five of Harry's love-wizards were looking down curiously. It looked up at Harry before ramming into him, causing a world of pain to erupt in Harry's head. _Danger_, was the one thing he managed to understand from the action as he was kicked out of his own and then the unicorn's mindscape.

With a jerk he was once again in his own body. He felt his stiff joints crack and stretched them out. He was also having a massive headache that caused his eyes to slip out of focus for a short moment. He didn't need the unicorn to whinny to sense the danger coming.

Harry immediately turned around to see a hooded and hooked figure in tattered black robes stride slowly towards him in rasping motions. He felt a sense of terror slash at him and realized that the thing was attacking him mentally. Nevertheless, he felt safe. He knew that the unicorn was helping him keeping his mental walls up and impenetrable. He whipped out his wand and took aim before firing off a stunner.

It didn't hit.

Or, it hit, but it bounced off a few inches from the creature. In response, Harry fired off several new stunner and even one or two Glacius spells, he had grown rather fond of the freezing charm ever since his encounter with the troll, but none of them hit. They were all deflected in the same way as the first one. Was that a wand that Harry glimpsed in amongst the black robes? It was gone faster than it was there. All the while, the thing crept closer and closer.

When it was just a few feet from Harry it began to stretch out, standing taller than Harry himself. It bent at the legs, as if preparing itself to launch at Harry right before a brilliant flame caught Harry's attention. It was gone in a matter of seconds, allowing Harry to return his attention to the assailant and, possibly, the culprit but it was not meant to be. The creature-thing was gone.

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**AN: **Hope you liked it! The unicorn thing was totally unplanned but that's just how I write. I thought it was interesting and fun to write, hope you thought similarly about reading it! As usual, for anything, you are most welcome to review. I won't ask for more reviews but I will encourage them. It motivates me and makes the writing even more fun than it already is!


	13. Chapter 13

**AN:** Hello, hello! Welcome back! I have been in a bit of a slump lately but I got one review a few days ago and suddenly managed to really get into the zone. So, here is your next chapter! See what just one review was able to do! It was just what I needed to finish this chapter and even start writing on my other fanfic! Well, here you go with the chapter. I think this is a good one and hopefully you'll do too!

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It was with a sigh of relief that Harry returned his attention to where the brilliant flame had appeared. In its place stood two witches and two wizards. Hagrid was there, to Harry's relief, and quickly bustled over to where Harry was standing protectively over the unicorn. Madam Pomfrey was there as well, while animals wasn't her expertise, healing certainly was. She immediately began to cast several complicated spells that Harry was in too much a disarray to record. Dumbledore was there as well, to Harry's surprise and, of course, Cai was there, being the one who retrieved them. Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix, being the one that had brought them there, was sitting upon her shoulder and rubbing his beak comfortingly along her cheek.

"Tha's the third one already." Hagrid said soberly to Dumbledore as he checked the wound. "Mighty good thing yeh ran ter get us, Ms Li. Jus' in the nick o' time." Cai simply nodded and closed her eyes as she sighed in relief.

"You can save her?" Harry asked the gamekeeper. He had no idea as to how he knew the gender, he just did. Hagrid gave him a questioning look and nodded before he returned to his work, grimacing at the vain attempt Harry had made of stopping the blood.

"Mr. Potter." Dumbledore's voice melodically reached his ears, making Harry turn his attention to the aged wizard. "I have barely received a full explanation from Ms. Li. Would you be so kind as to help her provide me with the full story?"

Harry nodded and walked over to Dumbledore where he told from how he had noticed the hares' weird behaviour until the present, with the occasional input from Cai. Unsurprisingly, he left out entering the unicorn's mind. It felt... too personal to tell it to anyone. Of course, he would tell Archie all about it as soon as he got the chance.

"You believe this... thing... that escaped when we arrived is the culprit?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes, sir. I think I saw a wand when it deflected my stunners and spells." Harry answered honestly.

"Hagrid, Poppy?" Dumbledore called out and Poppy immediately answered.

"This is definitely wand work, Albus. Dark curses." She explained. "I shall need Professor's Snape assistance in this."

"Very well, I shall leave you to your duties. Mr. Potter." He turned his attention to Harry who had put an arm around Cai who, in turn, was felling silent tears of relief. "Do you have any ideas as to what, or who, this culprit might be?"

"Err, no. As I said, I never saw its face. Do you?" Harry asked, confused. Dumbledore looked warily into the forest before shaking his head slowly. He definitely knew something.

"Only someone with nothing to lose and everything to gain would sink to carry out such a deed. A unicorn is the most pure of all animals and hurting one, much more killing one, is a most terrible crime." He gave them a sweeping look. "Now, I believe you and Ms. Li are mightily shaken and rightly so. A good night's rest will be more than in place for you. If you'd both hold onto me, Fawkes will bring us back to school."

"Can you give me a moment?" Harry asked and Dumbledore nodded. He walked over to where Hagrid was keeping check of the unicorn's condition with Madam Pomfrey. It was breathing much more steadily now. When Harry came close, it whinnied softly, straining its neck to look at him and Harry opened his mind, reaching out to the beautiful creature. He felt the impenetrable wall softly opening up to him, giving him a warming welcome. There were no words. Only a sensation that filled Harry to his very brim.

"I will see you later." He told it before looking at Hagrid. "I can see her later, right?" Hagrid gave him a doubtful look.

"I don' know, Harry. Unicorn's are free animals. They don' like bein' contained ter one place, see. It migh' run away as soon as it is healthy enough and there ain't anythin' I can do ter stop it. Ain't anythin' I _will_ do ter stop it, either."

Harry nodded simply. "No problem, she'll wait for me. She told me." With that he turned around and walked back to Dumbledore, leaving Hagrid to stare oddly at him. He gave a nod to Dumbledore and with a flash of red fire they were back in the castle. Harry was just about to go with Cai before Dumbledore called him once more.

"Mr. Potter, I would like to speak to you about a matter regarding your education further on in the week. I will expect you to visit me when you have time, but for now, go to your respective dormitories and get a good night's rest. Food will be brought up if you wish for it."

With another burst of flame, he was gone.

The walk back to the dormitory was spent in silence. You know what they say, silence is golden. This however, was nothing like it. There was something heavy hanging in the air, not between them but over them, and neither felt that they had the energy to reach through it.

Harry laid in his bed, staring up at the deep purple canvas of his four poster bed. There was untouched warm soup and bread, courtesy of the house elves, lying next to him but he paid it no heed. Today had been another eventful day. Would all his Hogsmeade visits be like this? It almost made him want to stop going.

He, Harry James Potter, had been inside of the mind of a unicorn. That was unheard of, or at least Harry had never heard of it. It was sick, how the unicorn's mind had been so beautiful and perfect yet so ruined and charred by the curses it had been afflicted with. Still, he had been allowed access to a unicorn's mind. The most pure of creatures. What was it that attacked her after? _Who_ was it? Surely it couldn't live off unicorn blood? The consequences of that were rather severe. What was it Dumbledore had said? 'Only someone with nothing to lose and everything to gain...'?

He was getting nowhere on this train of thought, so instead he thought about the rest of the Hogsmeade visit. It had been a rather rocky date with obvious ups and downs. Cai knew his deepest secret. Somehow he had actually told her about it. Why? He couldn't really say. At the moment, though, he didn't like it. What would she do with it? He couldn't help but wonder if she would use it against him somehow. It made him feel vulnerable, weak. He couldn't help but think of his younger days. How he had been so afraid of being a bother, a nuisance, that he had barely dared to do anything. He had built up walls around himself, to protect from the pain of neglect but as soon as one of his parents had said a word to him, his walls crumbled. It didn't help that the words had more often than not been on the theme of 'get out of the way'. He'd had to rebuild them from scratch countless of times and they were now stronger than ever. They hadn't crumbled once since he began second year and they still stood strong. Cai hadn't destroyed them. She wouldn't have been able to. At least not before today. However, she had somehow managed to slip inside of them and that frightened Harry. Now she had the power to completely destroy him, from the inside.

"Hey, Harry!" A well-recognized voice called from beside him and Harry sat up.

"How was your date?" Harry asked, glad to be able to take his mind off his troubles.

"Great!" Archie smiled dreamily, no doubt thinking of his time with Viola. Harry snorted, bringing Archie back from his fantasies. "How was yours?" He asked while wiggling his eyebrows.

"It had its ups and downs." Harry answered neutrally.

"I heard some rumours about you ditching Cai for Angelina, but then I saw you walking with Cai afterwards." He smiled slyly and ran a hand through his sandy blond hair. "What is the truth behind the rumours about the school's Casanova?" He winked, causing Harry to groan.

"Don't call me that."

"Why not? I heard Marietta Edgecombe making up strategies to woo you with some other claws in the common room on my way up here." Archie smirked widely. This certainly warranted another groan from Harry. He didn't want to sound too snotty and sound as if he was 'too popular'. On the contrary, he quite enjoyed his popularity and the benefits it brought him, but there had to be a limit. Right? He glanced towards Archie, who's grin was growing wider and wider for every second. Something was definitely off for him to be like that.

"What did you do?" Harry accused him.

"I didn't do anything!" Archie protested in mock hurt before resuming his grin. "Aside from promising I would help them of course." He laughed when Harry groaned once more. "How could I not? They even had this notebook with lots of interesting facts about you. Said they got it from Simons."

After silently cursing the gossip that was Hanna Simons, Harry quickly jumped into reiterating his very eventful day. Archie, as usual, was the perfect listener. Oohing, Aahing and gasping at the right moments. He seemed even more horrified by the injured unicorn than Harry was. Archie always did have a special connection to animals. After he was done with his iteration, Archie took a moment to collect his thoughts.

"So... basically, today you found an almost dead unicorn, entered its mind, got help, probably met this thing that's hurting unicorns, got told by Johnson that she probably likes you and told Cai about your past." He stated factually. "Sounds like you had a pretty normal day."

"What?" Harry frowned. "Angelina likes me?"

"You didn't notice?" Archie said with a roll of his eyes. "How else would you interpret her comment?"

Harry paused. 'Is it just gossip?' He shook his head. No, that was not insinuating anything.

"No, that was just the usual teasing. You're looking too much into it." He explained away to another of Archie's rolling eyes.

"Whatever keeps your wand straight." He then turned serious. "This thing with Cai, then?" Harry let out a strangled noise while bringing up his pillow to his face. He knew Archie would get hooked on that. What about the unicorn? That was _much_ more interesting. Couldn't he get hooked on that instead`? "Was it really wise to tell her?"

"I don't know. It just happened."

Archie made an affirmative noise. "What if she tells people?"

"She won't." He was not sure why he was defending Cai when he himself housed these very same fears.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!" Harry was beginning to get slightly irritated now. All he wanted to do was sleep.

"Alright. Just making sure she won't use it against you."

"Night." Harry finalised their conversation before turning his back to Archie.

Sleep didn't take him immediately though. His thoughts were focused on one thing. Never mind the whole debacle with Cai. Not even the unicorn or the mysterious assailant took up any space for the moment.

_Angelina likes me?_

.

The next few days went by with an aloof Harry. He wasn't paying attention in class, worrying the teachers that what he had been exposed to had severely affected him. He didn't speak much to Archie, resulting in Archie spending more and more time with Viola. He barely spoke to Cai, who was also certainly having difficulties dealing with the heartbreaking scene of the injured unicorn. Harry even missed his usual trainings with Archie and his brother, immediately making David worry about him and send a letter home to their parents. This resulted, in turn, with their parents sending an anxious letter asking if everything was alright. It only served to infuriate Harry and he burnt the letter on the spot. Not even thinking about how Angelina felt for him and how he felt for Angelina, respectively Cai, could really get him out of his brooding. It wasn't until the Friday after the Hogsmeade weekend that Harry was brought out of his unusual behaviour.

"Harry Potter!" A high-pitched voice shouted out from behind Harry just as he got out of another potions class spent day-dreaming. Needless to say, and to the glee of Snape, he had performed hideously. Something that Snape had been sure to take note of and display to the whole class with his snarky comments as he had done the whole week. At least Harry hadn't blown up his cauldron as he did only the day before. He had almost sent his neighbour at the time, Cassandra Alessi, a dark skinned and dark haired Slytherin girl to the hospital wing. She had been trying to discreetly help him but even she with her potion skills had not been able to stop the disaster. Luckily, Snape had been quick to throw up a shield charm, coincidentally saving Harry in the process. No doubt a mistake on the Head of Slytherin's part.

Harry turned at the sound of his own name to see a small first year boy come jumping towards him. The boy skidded to a halt in front of Harry, seemingly too nervous to say anything.

"What's your name?" Harry snapped, not in the mood for distractions.

"Justin Finch-Fletchley, Hufflepuff, sir." The boy almost saluted and Harry let out a breathy laugh. Sir? Was he really that intimidating?

"What do you want?" He snarled menacingly, smirking internally as the boy began to stutter. Had he really fallen so low as to almost bully eleven-year-olds? Well, he hadn't quite been his usual self lately, so he forgave himself for anything he might do.

"I-I... Hagrid t-told me... get you." Harry stared at him intensely. "Hagridtoldmetogetyou...unicorn!" Finch-Fletchley suddenly rambled before sprinting away.

Harry froze. The unicorn! It was healed now? He immediately jogged off towards Hagrid's hut. As he got within eyesight of it, he could clearly see that there was a crowd gathered in a wide ring. In the middle of the crowd stood Hagrid's big burly form. But what was the most eye-catching was the form besides Hagrid. It was impossible to not see the dazzling, almost shining, white of the beautiful creature..

He broke into a run to get there as fast as possible. Once within earshot, he slowed down, listening to the sounds of awe escaping the students.

"Isn't she a beauty?" Hagrid asked loudly and was very satisfied by the hums of agreement he received.

"How do you know it's a she?" A blonde Slytherin first year boy asked curiously as he took one step forward towards the unicorn. It snorted towards him and he frightfully retreated.

"Well, Mr. Malfoy, Harry's tol' me." Hagrid explained and scanned crowd. "Oi! Harry!" He shouted as he caught sight of him. "Good yeh made it!"

The crowd turned to see Harry walking through them and opened up a path for him, straight to the unicorn. He quickly closed the distance and walked into the wide space the students had left for the unicorn.

"Be careful!" Someone shouted. "It threatens anyone who gets too close except for Hagrid." There were some murmurs of worried agreement.

Harry snorted in response. A sound not too dissimilar to the one the unicorn had made towards the Malfoy kid earlier, mind you. "It won't hurt me." He said and stopped just a metre away from the beautiful animal. He heard the indrawn breath of surprise as the unicorn itself closed the distance between them and nuzzled its snout against Harry's chest. Harry reached up a hand to pat it where, the last time he saw it, there had been a terrible wound. Now there was a thin and tender scar tissue trailing along the side of its neck. Harry felt the unicorn shiver at his touch.

He had long since turned off all outer noise and distractions. There was only him and the unicorn. He peered into the deep blackness of the unicorn's eyes and before he knew it, he was no longer conscious in the material world.

Around him stretched nature as a whole in its purest form. There was no castle, no students, no teacher, no manmade things at all. Only nature. And in nature was _life_. Harry remembered his last visit here and the horrible things he had seen. It was the exact same place, except it was so different. Where the mountains had been melting, they now stood high and proud, towering above everything without putting anything in its shadow. Where the sea had been sick and drying up, it now was a blue as deep as the unicorn's eyes and calm as well as stormy, displaying its natural beauty as well as raw power. Where the forests and grass plains had been charred and spotted with fire, they now stood greener and taller than anything else. However, what stood out the most was the _life_ that filled it all. There were birds playing in the sky, squirrels jumping in the trees, goats climbing in the mountains, foxes roaming the forests and rabbits jumping in the grass plains, dolphins jumping in the sea as well as countless of other life forms. Prey as well as predator lived in harmony here where there was no need for food. It was as breath taking as it was steadying. The ultimate completion. It filled Harry with a sense of fullness. If he could feel like this every day, then he would be able to go through his childhood a thousand times while still being the most content man on earth.

Or that's what he thought. As if to prove him wrong, the unicorn came flowing towards him, making the scene even more perfect than it already was. It was dazzling Harry felt as if he was glowing as a warm sensation filled his body. The unicorn nuzzled its snout in Harry's chest as it had done in the real world.

_THANK YOU._

The words boomed through everything. It wasn't words in the literal form, per se. It was more a feeling of gratefulness than anything else. Still, it filled Harry's mind with such gentle force that it could not be interpreted in any other way.

Just like that, he was back in his own mind in his own body with him still looking into . Frankly, it was horrible. The absence of the great satisfaction that had filled him before almost hurt. How could a person get a taste of that without wanting more? Still, he knew that he should not seek for it again. He could practically feel the dangers of pursuing that feeling. _This must be how drug addicts feel,_ he mused to himself.

Finally, he laid notice to his surroundings. It was strangely still and quiet all around him. He looked to see the whole group of students still around him, staring at him in wonder, puzzlement and even fear in a few cases.

"Harry, what'd yeh do?" Hagrid asked while giving him a weird look mirroring the one he had given Harry the last time.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, puzzled as to the reason for the mixed stares.

"Yeh were starin' inter the unicorn's eyes fer fifteen minutes." He explained. Fifteen minutes? Had it really been that long? It had felt like only seconds to Harry. He could only stare at Hagrid dumbly.

"Then you began to glow. You _and_ the unicorn." A Gryffindor girl from the crowd whispered through the silence. Glow?

"It was freaky." The blond Slytherin stated. Harry decided that he definitely did not like him and sent him a withering glare, causing the boy to shrink back, hiding between two trying-to-be-intimidating-but-failing-miserably fat boys that rivalled even Harry's spoiled cousin in size.

"It was blinding." Another boy said.

"It was the most wonderful thing I've ever experienced." Another girl said.

"I've never felt so... so satisfied before." Another voice said.

"And warm." An additional voice added and a wave of compliance swept through everybody, even Hagrid nodded in agreement.

"And then, just as suddenly, it was gone." The first girl said with a sigh that was replicated by the majorities of the crowd.

"So, what did you do?" The little Malfoy sneered from behind his two bodyguards.

Harry was about to answer but just then, the unicorn neighed and pushed slightly against Harry as if to leave.

"Wait!" Harry told it and it stopped. Harry put his hands on each side of the unicorn's head and stared intently at it. "What do I call you?"

First, there was nothing. Then a bright light emanated from the its horn, almost blinding Harry. Light. Light? _Light_!

"I will see you again, Lux. Be careful." Harry said and Lux neighed in affectionate confirmation before trotting off and disappearing into the forest.

Left was a dull group of students and a gamekeeper staring into the forest where the unicorn had disappeared into. It was strangely boring with the unicorn gone. The colours didn't stand out as much. The air, usually so fresh, felt almost chokingly stiff.

Slowly, everything turned back to normal. The colours were as they were, the air was as fresh as it usually was and the sense of boredom dissipated. However, it could never measure up to when the unicorn had graced them all with its majestic presence.

Harry was the first one to move. Without a word, he trudged up towards the castle, feeling light hearted. For once, he felt that everything was going to be alright. The unicorn was fine. The situation with Cai knowing about his parents, well, he'd deal with it as it came.

Then there was the whole debacle of his parents as well. Even that didn't deflate his good mood. Hell, he might even look forward to Christmas, slightly. Who knew, this might be the first Christmas that he will receive presents from his parents in ten years. And he'd meet Daisy. After all, this was all for Daisy.

.

Up in a high tower, a very old man watched one of his best students walk towards the school.

_You never cease to amaze and surprise me, Harry._ Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore mused to himself. Harry Potter reminded him very strongly of another student from fifty years ago. He too, kept the surprises coming, both brilliant and terrible. So similar, yet so different.

While Tom Riddle had certainly been a talented, intelligent and charismatic wizard, all qualities that Harry possessed, he had lacked that certain one thing that was the driving force behind Harry. The fire that burns for others.

The times were darkening. Albus could feel it. Riddle would eventually find a way to return to power, and the terror from the last war would follow. Yet, he couldn't help but feel that the future didn't seem so dark because of children, because of _people_ like Harry. There would come a when he would depart onto the next great adventure and maybe, just maybe he would be leaving a better world behind him. At least, thanks to young people like Harry, he dared to hope.

* * *

**AN: **Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed! I certainly enjoyed writing this. I think I prefer writing this one compared to my other one, despite that one being more popular but well, you can't have anything. It would be awesome if this one became that popular! Anyway, thanks again for reading and please review! I have the power to write and you have the power to help me!


	14. Chapter 14

**AN:** Finally a new chapter out! I just started working and studying italian in the evenings and is getting a routine in my life so hopefully the chapters will be coming out more regularly. Hope you'll enjoy!

* * *

"Harry, could you help me with this question?" David asked and held his homework up to Harry's face.

Name one of the five principal exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration.

Harry looked at it tiredly before returning to gazing out at the white landscape soaring past.

"Harry?" David asked once more.

"You can't conjure food." He said, annoyed. "Now be quiet or go to another compartment."

He had gotten into a fight, or rather, in the middle of a fight, a week prior and it still wasn't resolved. He didn't like leaving things this way until he got back again. It wasn't like he was going to be having a really good time at home, either. Spending time with his parents. Pfft. Bloody brilliant.

He sighed deeply, making the other occupants of the compartment, Hermione, Ron and David eye each other discreetly. Archie was staying at Hogwarts due to his parents going off on a romantic vacation. They would see him in the summer anyway, they had said in the letter he got. Harry so wished he could stay with him, like all the other Christmases since he began Hogwarts.

He thought back to how it all started.

.

Harry was walking together with Cai to their History of Magic class from lunch in the Great Hall. He was thinking about the Christmas holiday that was to come and wasn't paying any heed to what was happening around him. Thus, he didn't notice when Cai crept her small hand into his.

"I said, _hello_ Harry." A voice in front of them said clearly, making Harry blink. Angelina was standing right in front of him, looking at him and Cai, or more specifically, their hands. He then noticed their interlocking hands and tried to discreetly slip his hand out of Cai's but she held on too strongly.

"He obviously doesn't want to talk to you." She said fiercely.

"Oh, sorry, Angie. And hi. Was thinking about someth-" Harry said before registering what Cai had said. It didn't matter, she wasn't listening to him anyway.

"I'm sorry, but Harry is my _friend_ and I can talk to him whenever I want." Angelina bit back with extra emphasis on 'friend', making Cai stop and wonder what exactly the dark girl in front of her was implying. "Besides," she continued, "Harry can speak for himself. He doesn't need you to talk for him."

"A-" Harry began but was interrupted by Cai who was now gripping his hand very tightly.

"Oh, yeah? But I bet I am much closer to Harry than you are?"

"Oh, really, you've had sex?" Angelina asked, arching an eyebrow at Harry, making Cai blush.

"H-he has told me things about himself that he would never tell you! His deepest secret!" Cai said with a triumphant smile. Angelina actually looked slightly hurt. It was true, they hadn't really had any deep talk. With them, it had mostly been teasing and... other things. Harry wasn't even sure that he would tell Angelina about his parents even if he had and now he was still having doubts about having told Cai.

"Like what?" She asked, making Cai's grin widen even more. Doubts that looked to be rightly placed.

"You really don't know?" She said gloatingly and then laughed. "You really don't know! Harry and his parents - Oumph."

Harry had smacked his one free hand over Cai's mouth, maybe a little too forcefully, stopping her from speaking any further.

"I was wrong to have told you that." He said calmly and let go of her mouth as her eyes widened in shock at what she had almost done. "Go." He stated.

"But-"

"Please. Go." He said calmly. He felt like ice. She ran and pushed past Angelina like a dog with her tail between her legs.

Harry then faced Angelina who looked affronted.

"You told her your deepest secret?" She asked.

"And apparently, I shouldn't have." Harry said.

"Uhu, so why don't you tell me anything?" She demanded dangerously, her voice low.

"What?" He asked, surprised. "Well, we don't really have any deep talks. We just joke and tease each other most of the time. Not that I don't enjoy it when we do! It's just, that it's usually pretty shallow." He could hear how badly it sounded as soon as the words left him.

"So that's all I am to you? A sex-friend. Someone you can tease and have shallow talks with while you go and pour out your heart to her?" Her eyes glistened slightly.

"What? No! That's what I thought I was to y-" Harry replied but she wasn't listening.

"I hate you Harry Potter!" She stated hotly and walked back the way she had come from.

_What. Just. Happened_, Harry thought as he shook his head. He guessed it was slightly nice to know that the same thoughts that had been wandering around his head seemed to trouble Angelina, though there might have existed a nicer way to find out.

He began to make his way to the Ravenclaw tower, hoping to find Cai there. She was sitting in one of the chairs in front of an open fire. Luckily, it was only them there, the rest was at lunch or in class, not like Binns would notice their absence anyway.

"Hey." He greeted her. "Listen, I'm sorry for my-"

"You had sex with her?" She interrupted him. That seemed to happen a lot to him today.

"Well..." What should he say?

"You had sex with her while you were dating me?" She asked once again.

"What? No, that wasn't what I came up here to say." Dating? They were dating?

"What did you come to say, then?" She sniffed at him.

"Well, I came to apologize-"

"For having sex with that whore while dating me." She finished for him. What? No, that wasn't right. He was beginning to get slightly fed up now. Why couldn't they at least listen to him?

"_I_ came here to apologize for the way I treated you in front of Angelina a short while ago and tell you that I did it because you were about to spill my 'deepest secret' due to your own jealousy. I did not tell it to you for you to use it against me or anybody else. I am disappointed." There, he said it.

"Then why did you tell me?" Cai demanded, her eyes glistening with tears. "Am I some sort of emotional outlet for you while you go off have sex with that girl?"

"What? No, that's not it at all! I told you because something in you made me trust you! Obviously, I was wrong to do so." That came out more harshly than he intended. Cai was now openly crying.

"I hate you Harry Potter!" She screamed and ran up the stairs to her dormitory.

With a yell of frustration, Harry hurried to the nearest table and flipped it over. Next, he ran up to his own dormitory and opened the window, unshrinked his broom and flew out.

Neither of them even spared so much as a look for Harry until Christmas break began.

.

Harry sighed once again as the train rolled into Platform 9 ¾. He should send letters to both of them over the holiday. He had no idea what would happen if he let this brew over the holiday but it would probably not be very good. He looked out the window. Sure enough, there they were, red cheeks puffing in the cold, happy smiles plastered onto their faces. They started waving just as they saw him, happy smiles turning into nervous except for Daisy. Harry forced himself to return a tired smile.

_For Daisy, it's all for Daisy._

He slowly dragged his trunk through the train and out to the platform only to be tackled by a small red bullet.

"Harry!" She yelled as she enveloped his abdomen in a tight hug and he couldn't stop a breathy laugh from escaping.

"Hi, Daisy!"

"You're coming home!" She exclaimed with glee.

"Yes, yes I am." He answered. He looked towards where his parents stood, their nervous smiles slowly gaining confidence as they saw him with Daisy. He gave them a tight and uneasy smile which they returned at full force. Maybe, just maybe, it would be worth it.

.

Harry woke early. Seeing that the sun was still far from rising, he took his time in getting up. He ambled down the stairs and into the kitchen, where he found his father up and about.

"Good morning, Harry!" His father chirped. He got a grunt in response. "Your mother is usually the one in the kitchen but I wanted to surprise her with breakfast on the bed today. Merlin knows, she deserves it!" He prattled on, seemingly forgetting how Harry thought about his parents. It had been like that ever since he got home a few days ago. James had started talking to him as if he really was his son and everything was all right between them. It had been hesitant at first but he soon got into some sort of mode where he ignored all of Harry's jibes and attempts to get rid of his father. Harry had even thrown a vase towards him which he caught swiftly and chided him softly for throwing things before continuing on like nothing had happened. Now, Harry simply ignored the man whenever Daisy wasn't around. He didn't like the way James acted as if Harry had already forgiven him. It made Harry think of all the stories he had heard about James pestering and courting Lily for years without pause until finally she began to like him back. He'd acted as if they were a pair long before they actually were.

Harry cleared his head. "What?" He asked.

"I asked if you would like some eggs, bacon and toast?" James repeated.

"No, I'll cook myself, just like I have been doing for the last ten years." Harry said with no little hint of venom. James didn't get the message though as he dropped a plate filled with eggs, bacon and toast.

"There you go! Enjoy!" he said before disappearing with his own tray to wake up Lily. "Oi! Lilypads!"

Harry swore slightly to himself but dug into the food anyway. He had a certain policy to never throw away food, a policy he had learnt the hard way of food being scarce, and it would be too bothersome to not eat anything made by his evil parents.

Although he disliked the way his father was with him, he much more disliked how his mother acted. It was greatly awkward whenever Lily and Harry were in the same room. Like there was a great elephant between them that symbolized how she had maltreated him through the years. Every time she talked to him, he could feel her reaching out through all her failures laden with guilt. David had probably noticed and Daisy was bound to notice too if she continued like this. It was impossible to have a conversation with her when she apologized in everything she said. ('Mum, could you pass me the ketchup?' 'Oh, I'm sorry for keeping it from you.') Seriously? Harry would have almost felt sorry for her if he didn't know that she deserved worse. Much worse. Besides, he was fairly certain his mother was avoiding spending too much time with him for this very reason.

"Harry!" A high-pitched voice exclaimed from behind him and Harry's day immediately brightened.

"Good morning, Daise." He greeted her. She showed her teeth in a wide grin and climbed up to sit in his lap.

"Tomorrow is Christmas!" She stated and dug into his bacon. "Do you have a present for me?" She asked in all seriousness.

"Of course!" Harry nodded. "Do you have one for me?" He returned. She nodded while drinking from his glass of milk. "What is it?"

"Not telling!" She said and wailed as he began to tickle her. "You... will... ruin... the surprise!" She shouted between fits of laughter. In the end, Harry gave up.

"What's all this racket?" David came into the kitchen. He gave them both a tired look before proceeding to grab the leftover eggs from the frying pan. "I think dad is singing to mom. It woke me up."

Harry barely managed to contain his sniff before Daisy burst out. "Really? I wanna see!" She then wrenched herself free of Harry and scrambled up to their parents' bedroom. So much energy so early in the day.

Harry, on the other hand, proceeded to do his usual wandless magic exercises. He sat down on his bed and started summoning and banishing his pen. He had recently put up a target board on his door and was training his with its help. Just as he sent a particularly well-aimed shot at the door, it opened to reveal David.

"What are you doiaaahhh!"

"Accio!" Harry shouted and the pen flew back straight at him at a frightening speed that he didn't dare try and catch it. Instead he brought up his pillow and there was a weird little creaky sound that could be heard as the pen buried itself in the soft material. He turned the pillow around to see the pen deeply buried in it. "What do you want?" He asked David as he brought the pen free from the pillow.

David, who had been stumbling backwards and fallen on his behind was just about to speak but he wasn't fast enough.

"What's all this racket?" James voice called from the corridor and, sure enough, shortly after, Harry's father emerged in the doorway. He took in David sitting on the floor and Harry looking irritated.

"Harry did magic!" David burst.

"What!" James seemed to reach a conclusion. He turned hardened eyes onto Harry. "Harry, you know you aren't allowed to because of the underaged restriction law! They could expel you!"

"It was wandless!" David piped excitedly.

"Really?" James asked surprised and seemed slightly impressed before catching himself. He once again turned on his serious mode. It pissed Harry off. This man thought he had the right to come in to his room, acting all fatherly, and then scold him! "Still, to use it against David, you should know better! If I hear you doing anything like this one more time, I will-"

"No, dad! He saved me!" David objected to Harry's astonishment.

"Oh! Seriously?" This time the surprise was whole and genuine. He once again turned to Harry. This time, his pride was so obvious that Harry felt like puking. "Well then. Well done, son." He said before muttering. "This boy never ceases to amaze me!" Harry immediately went into action, banishing the pen straight at the man who called himself his father as he walked out of Harry's room. His target practicing had paid off and the pen flew straight for the back of James head.

Just as it was about to hit, James raised his hand and the pen stopped in the air. He grabbed it and chuckled slightly before lightly tossing it over his shoulder back to Harry, all the while looking straight forward. It landed softly in his lap.

"Wow, dad!" David called and followed after. "Could you teach me that?"

"Maybe when you're older, son." James response echoed back to Harry.

Harry was stunned. He had been utterly and completely outclassed in wandless magic. By his father, no less. Not many practiced wandless magic and even among those who do, Harry thought he was pretty good, at least as good as a lot of adults, but this was just out of the park! He couldn't help but feel slightly in awe of his father. How the hell had he been able to do that? Not only that, it was without looking! How did he know where the pen was?

Harry had no idea but he sure as hell was going to find out. And after he found out, he wouldn't rest until he learned it!

.

"Harry?" A tired voice came from the library entrance.

He was sitting on the floor, books about wandless magic all around him and not a single one mentioned being able to sense things like James had done earlier the same day. He yawned and looked to the door. It was James. He was holding Daisy in his arms.

"Fell asleep downstairs while waiting for Santa." He explained after a yawned. Harry nodded slightly and failed to suppress a yawn of his own. James smacked his lips. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"I'm trying to find out how you could know that the pen was coming at you." He explained.

James grinned winningly. "You could always ask, you know?"

Harry shook his head. "Not before hell freeze over." He was much too proud for that.

James laughed his hearty laugh that always seemed to come so easy for him. "Well, I'm heading to bed, you should too. It's getting late and it's Christmas tomorrow!"

Harry made a noise of disagreement and kept searching his books.

"You know where to find me!" He said before leaving. "You definitely got that stubbornness from Lily!" he murmured just loudly enough for Harry to hear.

After a while of searching, Harry glanced towards the big clock hanging above the door. It was three thirty a.m. and he still hadn't found anything. He seriously pondered for a second to ask his father for help but then quickly banished the idea. Sirius would be coming for Christmas tomorrow. Maybe he knew the trick behind what James had done.

With that, Harry quickly gathered up the books around him and put them on a table where he could later go through them again. Only because they didn't contain exactly what he was looking for, didn't mean they weren't useful.

He made his way down the stairs to his room and eventually his bed, wondering what the next day would bring. Sleep found him as soon as his head hit the pillow.

* * *

**AN: **There we go, I hope you liked it! I really enjoyed writing it, especially the interaction with James. I have always liked James, even though he is shameless and maybe takes too many liberties(even for a man), it is also charming in a way. Anyway, I have a question for you, just out of curiosity, that I would be happy if you answered! Who is your favourite character in my story and why? Also a follow-up question: who would you like that person to be paired with? It could be something as simple as or simpler than 'My favourite is Archie because it feels like there is more to him than meets the eye and I would like to pair him with Harry because they would be so cute together!' or you could evaluate your answer in detail, maybe you don't want a pairing at all! All are answers of which I would greatly enjoy. As usual, anything and everything is appreciated! Please review!


	15. Chapter 15

**AN:** A rather short chapter. Still, it does what I need it to do so I am satisfied with the length. Hope you'll enjoy!

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"Wakey wakey!" Daisy's voice called out gleefully, although unusually deep.

Harry groaned and turned around in bed. It had been late last night.

"Come on, sleepyhead. I'd have thought you'd be more happy, seeing as the last time we met was at King's Cross station." That was definitely too deep to be Daisy's voice.

Harry immediately jerked awake.

"Sirius!" He sprang out of bed and gave his laughing Godfather a bear hug.

"Long time no see, kiddo." He said before donning an uncharacteristically serious face. A face that Harry only saw him wear when facing Harry's parents. True enough, when Harry glanced to the door, he saw his mother and father standing there, both wearing rather strangled expressions.

It was Sirius who broke the silence.

"This will be the first Christmas we've spent together in ten years, huh."

"I've always wondered why that was so." James answered conversationally. "We used to be inseparable..." He quieted down under Sirius stare, however.

"I'd think the reason why is rather obvious." He stated calmly and walked out of the room with Harry in tow.

The day was spent in a rather awkward atmosphere. It seemed as if in Lily and James had been trying to make up for all the missed Christmases until now and showered him in presents, much to the amazement of Daisy and the ill-concealed jealousy of David. Just a few of his presents were a broom-cleaning set, -he had no idea how they knew that he needed a new one but he suspected Dumbledore had been involved somehow - gloves, wand holster, real practice swords, - again, suspecting Dumbledore's involvement - as well as an intricate watch that had once belonged to his grandmother. The biggest surprise, nonetheless, had been when he received the invisibility cloak. Even Sirius looked slightly surprised by that. He had been staring at it in wonder and puzzlement when his father spoke up.

"It has always been given to the oldest Potter when he or she began Hogwarts." He gave a slight wink before turning serious once again. "I know that we gave it to David first and I can't begin to say how sorry I am. This is only righting one wrong of our negligence and it is definitely not enough, but it is something. The cloak is rightfully yours, although I hope your brother, and sister when it is her turn, may borrow it once in a while."

It was obvious that they were trying to right their wrongs, giving a peace offering, as basically all of their presents had been. Still, they were trying to make him feel as part of the family and maybe, just maybe, he did feel it, a little. Besides, if Harry had been part of the family when he was eleven, not just in name, he would have gotten this very invisibility cloak as he went to Hogwarts. Now, he still got it, alas a bit late. What else were they to do, if they wanted to really right their wrongs? Did giving him this ancient and valuable heirloom not show their willingness to include him in the family?

He looked to his father, different emotions racing through his mind and heart. Anger at the obvious tactics to get into his good graces, at the notion that his love and forgiveness could be bought with material things. Sadness for the reason that it had gotten this far, that their family was completely split up. Hope that, maybe one day, he would be able have a family, a real family, once again. And lastly, the vague impression of a warm feeling that he had last felt at the beginning of the term, right before his breakup with Tonks. He looked to Sirius from which he received a knowing look.

"Thanks." He said with a slightly choked voice. He could almost feel the warmth of the smiles emanating from his father and his mother who, for once, didn't seem as apologetic and nervous as she usually did when in the same room as him. He then looked over to Daisy, the one reason why he ever considered giving them a chance, even if that is not how he saw it in the beginning. _This is a start_, he thought as he contemplated the thin and fragile bonds that were beginning to form between him and his parents. In truth, it had probably begun months ago, when his parents realized their neglecting of him, but there was no reason to tell him such a thing.

Dumbledore also came to visit shortly during the day. A visit that only served to infuriate Harry. The old geezer simply stepped out of the fireplace in the middle of them opening their presents, took one look at Harry, Lily and James, nodded to himself and said 'good!' far too loudly before stepping back into the fireplace and vanish in the flames. It had left them all feeling rather dumbstruck and Harry rather manipulated. Still, at least Dumbledore was rather open about his intentions, so Harry was not quite sure if he could call it manipulation. That didn't stop him from sulking about it, though, something that Daisy quickly remedied when she wanted to play with him and the toy broom she had received from their parents.

Harry pointedly noticed that there had been nothing from Cai, nor Angelina while he had sent them both Christmas cards wishing them a good holiday and also trying to explain things as well as he could. He had no idea what he was getting back to after the holidays. He also thought about his gift from Archie.

The feast, while still being awkward was something that Harry reluctantly found himself enjoying. He couldn't help but think that it was everything that he had ever dreamed of. His whole family was there, along with Sirius and Remus. It was loud, by far the loudest of his Christmases for many years but it was just as it should, as it should have been. Occasionally he would catch his mother looking his way, her gaze radiating happiness and love and he couldn't stop the warmth that spread from his chest. He attributed it to be the spiced wine that Sirius kept pouring for him until his mother stopped him with one short comment. For some reason, the warmth spread even faster then. Daisy sitting in his lap also sped up the heating of his chest as well as David chatting with him amiably about some sword technique he had read about. Eventually, it got so warm that he began to sweat. He had to lift Daisy off of him and hurry to the bathroom.

He quickly shrugged off his pullover and shirt to look upon his skin right where his heart was. The expected burn was not present. Why was it so hot then. He turned on the cold tap and began to splash cold water on himself but it made no difference. What was happening to him?

He looked up to see Lily standing in the door, looking at him, her face wrought in concern. It only served to increase the heat. She took a few hesitant steps towards him and reached out with one hand.

"What's happening to me?" He demanded desperately, gaze intent on her hand getting slowly closer.

"It's love." She answered simply.

He couldn't stop himself. He puked.

Next thing he knew, he was leaning into his mother's arms, crying his heart out. He could feel the heat in his chest cooling down until only a comfortably warmth remained.

"It's all our fault!" Lily sniffed over his shoulder as she patted his back. "We should have been there for you, _I_ should have been there for you!"

After several minutes they were both on their knees, still with Harry crying into Lily's shoulder. How she was able to remain upright would forever be a wonder to him.

"It's ok." He heard himself saying. Why would he say that? It was _not_ ok. He knew that and more importantly _she_ knew that. Nevertheless, it felt right to say. It wasn't a forgiving ok, it was a comforting ok.

"Despite all you had to go through, you have become such a good person."

He stilled for a moment. Was he really? He couldn't help but think about school. Sure, a lot of people looked up at him, but he really only had one friend, that being Archie. There was Cai and Angelina, he guessed, but apparently he botched that up pretty well. He wasn't even sure that he had done something wrong, but they didn't see it that way. Well, he did help that unicorn, and he did help his brother, although maybe not in the most pleasant way. He was also strictly against Voldemort. Was that enough for him to be a good person? He didn't know.

"We should go back." He suggested in a slightly reluctant manner as he separated from his mother. She gave him a tight smile before nodding.

"You wash up first and come join us when you are ready."

And so, he did.

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**AN:** There we go! Some progress! I hope you enjoyed! Soon we will be back in Hogwarts! I can't wait! Reviews are very welcome! See you soon!


	16. Chapter 16

**AN:** Hello dear readers! This story has exploded slightly in popularity! I think I have gotten at least 60 new followers since my last chapter which is really nice since this is probably my favourite story out of my works at the moment. This is not the fastest update, nor is it the slowest, nor the longest or shortest. It is a nice interlude, however, and hopefully it will begin the answers some of the questions that I know some, if not all of you, possess. Hope you'll enjoy!

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Harry sat alone in on the floor meditating in his cabin on the way back to Hogwarts. He had made it very clear that if David and his friends wanted to sit with him, they would score the record for the fastest visit to the infirmary in Hogwarts history. They had wisely obliged to his wishes. Alone in his cabin, he could pull himself together. He closed his eyes and entered his mindscape. The very same mindscape where he had run with the unicorn as well as destroyed the piece of Voldemort in his head.

He appeared inside of his walls, at the entrance to his fortress, or castle. It was as similar to Hogwarts as he had been able to make it. He walked inside and soon reached the Great Hall. In the Great Hall. there were lots of doors. They lined the walls, both on the ground as well as several metre up, and even the magical ceiling held the occasional door. Those were the most important ones. He walked over to the closest door on the right. It was decorated with a drawing of a train station. It showed a family of five, four of them standing together with a fifth slightly apart from the rest. The four were encouragingly and almost desperately beckoning for the fifth to join them and the fifth hesitantly approached. It was obvious what it would show him. Why would he relive that memory now? Simple, he felt that it was important. Without hesitating, he opened it.

.

The bell of the Hogwarts train chimed loudly, signalling that there were only five minutes left until departure. It was like a wakeup call for Harry and his parents. They had been staring at each other for a few minutes without saying anything while David had introduced Daisy to his friends. It was the first time in Harry's life that they had travelled with him to the station to see him off to Hogwarts.

As much as he looked into his parents eyes, he couldn't find any spite in them. He almost wished there was some, so that he could receive some sort of explanation. All he could see, however, was love. It was a thought that had crossed him shortly after Christmas. His parents, who had neglected and almost hated him for ten years, all of a sudden wanted to reconcile with him and become a complete family again. They acted as if they completely regretted their actions and Harry actually found that he believed they do, no matter how hard he sought after something else. Than how, why did they act like he almost didn't exist for so long? It was like a complete one-eighty turn. What made them see him again?

He took a small step towards them. This seemed to signal Lily that it was alright for her to come closer as well. She almost threw herself at him and soon his father did the same.

The last time they had engaged him in a group hug he had taken some time to return it and he did similarly this time. This time, however, he didn't tighten his hold to slightly hurt them as he had done that time. Instead he just held his arms around them tenderly, as if to mediate his mixed sense of comfort through his actions.

The scene ended there.

.

Appearing back in the Great Hall, Harry went to the next door. This too contained a memory from the holidays, more specifically, the night before. It depicted a study with two people, one man and one teenage boy standing on either side of a table. Their similar looks made it obvious that they were related. He stepped forward to enter this memory as well.

.

Harry burst open the door to his father's study perhaps slightly more violently than he had originally intended. He didn't let that show on his face, however, when he confronted the slightly startled James sitting in his chair with some important looking papers in front of him.

"Tell me." He demanded after positioning himself opposite his father.

"Tell you what?" James asked nicely, a tiny amused smile playing upon his lips.

"What you did that night with the pen!" Harry said through clenched teeth, jaw set. "I have been searching through every book I can find on wandless magic and what you did is never mentioned!"

"Ah, I see." James stated before turning silent.

After ten second, Harry crossed his arms in expectation. After half a minute, Harry began to tap his foot irritatingly. After two minutes of nothing but an amused expression ornamenting his father's face, Harry's patience was over.

"Well?" He grinded out.

"I thought you didn't want my help?" James asked with an insufferable grin. In response, Harry gave him his most evil eye, earning a laugh from James. "It's really simple." He stopped at the sound of Harry's grating teeth. That had not been the right thing to say. He seemed to realize that as he went on. " Maybe that wasn't my best choice of words. I'll be blunt with you. You are looking for the wrong things. More than learning it as you do wandless magic and Occlumency, connecting with the magic inside of you, you need to connect with the magic _outside_ of your core. Feel the magic around you and through it, feel your surroundings. It's called Magesense. Of course, it does have limitations, such as ra-"

"Stop!" Harry, having remained quiet for his father's rant, finally had enough and put a stop on it. "I want to find out the rest for myself." His father quieted down and smiled at him, no doubt thinking that he was such a stereotypical Ravenclaw. For someone that was probably rather sufficient at Occlumency, being an elite Auror _and_ the Head of the Potter family, he was sometimes foolishly easy to read.

"Of course you do. Goodnight, Harry."

Harry turned to exit the office before promptly turning back around again. James, slightly surprised, waited expectantly for him to begin. Harry hesitated and took a deep breath.

"Thank you... father." He hurried out of his father's study. Not without seeing the large grin that could have lit up a whole Quidditch stadium on his father's face, however.

.

Harry appeared back into his version of the Great Hall with slightly tinged cheeks. It had been even more embarrassing the night of the memory and he hadn't even said a word to his father the day after, aside from a quick goodbye when boarding the train. He quickly left the Great Hall and ventured out onto the grassy plains of his mindscape. He had tried to make it more alive, like the unicorn's mind had been but he hadn't been very successful. So far, only a baby leopard, had inhabited the small forest he had managed to add to the grassy plains. Why, he had no idea. Did leopards even live in forests?

Seeing the baby leopard run out of sight, he turned his thoughts to other matters.

Magesense. Connecting with the magic outside of your core. What had his father said? Occlumency and wandless magic was connecting with the magic inside of you, namely your core. Then fat load of good it would do to be here, in his mindscape. Without further ado, he left his mindscape to spend the rest of the time until he reached Hogwarts to learn Magesense. The Hogwarts train was bound to have magic surging everywhere. Wouldn't it be the perfect trick to show in his first spar with Archie after getting back from home? He could do something epic like completely block something from behind his back or do something similar to what his father had done. Sadly, though, he would have no success on this train ride.

.

James looked after the departing train on platform 9 ¾ with a mix of happiness and regret. He would have liked to spend more time getting closer to Harry. What was to stop him from drifting apart from them once again now that he was going to be away for so long? It had gone so well, especially since Christmas day. So many things had gone so well lately. Them being on the way of becoming a whole family again had also sparked something anew between him and Lily. Everything had become such a routine for them but now it was almost like the olden days. Every day was exhilarating in its own way, an adventure in which they didn't know what to expect. A type of dance, if you will, although, now it wasn't between him and Lily. Now there were several more components dancing around each other, Lily and James on one side, Harry on another and surprisingly David on a third. They all seemed to dance around Daisy who had somehow become the focal point of their family, the unifying point. With each step they learned and found new things about their children and with each step learned, and relearned, new and old things about themselves.

He smiled fondly as he thought back to yesterday. After his late night meeting with Harry, he had excitedly hurried - he had not run. An adult did simply not run about like an excited little child in his own house, especially not James! - to his and Lily's bedroom to wake his wife and tell her about his meeting with their son and the progress it had showed. She had become nearly as excited as him and all the excitement had caused them to hastily apply some silencing charms around their room before resorting to sweatier and noisier activities. No, he had not felt this good in a long time.

He felt a tug on his robe and looked down to see his youngest child, Daisy worriedly gazing up at him. In answer to his curious gaze, she pointed backwards, to Lily who was wearing a strange frown while watching the spot where they had last been able to see the Hogwarts express. He grabbed his daughter's hand and walked over to her.

"Lily?" He asked probingly.

"Don't you think it's weird?"

"What's weird?" James asked, surprised by the abruptness of the question.

"How he had been living in the same house as us with us barely noticing, much less caring, and then suddenly, after _10 years_, it hits us like a backlash." James sighed in relief. He had just been able to cast a muffliato charm onto Daisy's ears. Then what she was saying reached him.

"Huh." He grunted out. She glanced knowingly towards him.

"I can understand us revelling in David's fame for a short time and shirking our duties as parents towards Harry slightly, but for ten years? And to ever have it reach that point? What's more, when we 'realized' what we had done, we immediately knew how wrong we were and regretted it to the point of breaking. It's like, it's almost like..."

"It's almost like were acting on a Confundus Charm and somehow broke free from it after we sent David off last time." James finished for her. It pained him slightly that he could not include Harry's name. Luckily, Sirius had been there to fill in some of the holes they had made. Lily nodded in agreement and the more he thought about it, the more it made sense to him. "We should speak to Dumbledore about this." He was about to suggest to floo the old wizard immediately but stopped himself at the slight shaking of Lily's head.

"I think we should go through this more thoroughly first. As much as I wish to, and it would be incredibly convenient, I cannot bring myself to lay all the blame of my actions towards Harry on a Confundus charm. First, we should research the possibilities and limitations of the Confundus Charm and then, if, after we have gathered as much information as we can, still believe that there is the possibility of us having been victims to the charm, I am ready to speak to Dumbledore about this. Despite, I am not certain of his role in all of this either." She said with slightly narrowed eyes.

James nodded at the words of his wife, a little ashamed of himself for being so quick to attempt the easy way out. She always was a clearheaded thinker and it was one of the many qualities he loved in her, although, he doubted Dumbledore had cast a Confundus Charm on them.

"We should probably not tell Harry of this theory yet, either. I am not overly curious as to what his reaction would be." He finally said with a grimace of a smile, Lily chuckling in agreement.

The last thing he thought before disapparating from the platform with Daisy was that it was a funny coincidence that both of these 'revelations' - if they could be called as such - had happened at platform 9 ¾ when they dropped off their children for Hogwarts.

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**AN:** Just like some of you had, Lily and James has now also noticed the strangeness of the sudden change in their behaviour and thought patterns to Harry and they are beginning to question it. Hopefully this chapter also raised some new questions, theories or possible answers in your minds. Anyway, I hope you ejoyed and you are very welcome to review!


	17. Chapter 17

**AN:** Hello! Finally another update. I will try to get out updates more frequently from now on and this time I don't think it's just empty words. I sort of find the spark again which I had been lacking for a while and thereby think that this is a rather well-written chapter, at least the end of it. Hope you'll agree!

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It was after dinner and almost time for curfew. Harry and Archie were in one of the library's group rooms, researching Magesense. They had holed themselves in with stacks of books creating walls around them. It was basically all that they've done with their free time ever since Harry got back and told Archie about his holidays. So far, they'd only found snippets of it mentioned here and there. Apparently, and perhaps unsurprisingly, Merlin had been known for his incredible strong Magesense. He was supposed to have been able to sense the area around him at a huge distance. How huge that was, wasn't specified.

Harry, however, hadn't been able to concentrate for the last couple of hours, something that Archie had noticed already.

"Archie." Harry spoke lowly, a hint of doubt in his voice. "Do you think what I am doing is okay?"

"What?" Archie blinked as he extracted himself from the thick tome he was currently emerged in, _The more obscure and rare type of Magicks._ He quickly recognized the note in Harry's voice. It was reserved for only one topic. He asked either way. "About what?"

"You know." Harry waved the question away as if it was obvious, which, it was. "About my family, parents, I mean. Do you think that whatever this is that is happening between them and me... is alright?"

"I don't know." Archie answered honestly after a pause. He had never held Harry's parents in high regard and still didn't. He couldn't just brush off the fact that Harry had been neglected for ten whole years and act like it hadn't happened, an attitude that Harry had seemed to share before the holidays. Still, Harry sometimes acted this way and, judging by what he had been told of Harry's holiday, so did his parents. It was such a weird situation. Archie knew that deep inside, whether they deserved it or not, Harry wished to reconnect with his family despite it all and why should he object? If it made Harry happy, it would make Archie happy in turn. Hell, he knew Harry deserved it. "Do you?"

Harry let out a strangled laugh. "I don't know. When I think about it, I can't bring myself to forgive them and most of the time when I spend time with them as well. But sometimes it just feels so natural, you know? They are trying to act as real parents and a lot of the time it pisses me off. But honestly, isn't that the right thing to do from their side? I don't want to be compensated for everything that I missed, although they did try to do so with their gifts at Christmas. What I want and what I have always wanted is a family that cares for me and loves me the same as my siblings. I know how it feels to be unfairly treated and I don't want either of my siblings to feel that way, _ever_."

Archie nodded slowly. Although he was an only child, he could understand where Harry was coming from. He returned his attention to the book. It really seemed to be the most promising he had read so far. It became even more so once he had flipped to the next page.

"Hey, take a look at this." He told Harry excitedly.

_Magesense_

_An obscure bit of magic, it is much like a sixth sense, allowing someone to sense their surroundings through their magic. Whereas many may believe it to be similar to the mind arts, such as Occlumency and Legilimency, it is in fact, not related at all, although the discipline one obtains through learning the mind arts is indeed useful when attempting to learn Magesense. _

"Do you think this is it?" Archie asked Harry who had moved next to him to read. Harry nodded excitedly while keeping his focus upon the. Sometimes Archie really understood why Harry was a Ravenclaw. With a smile, he returned to the text.

_Magesense is extremely useful in battle, allowing someone to feel and instantly receive information of what is physically happening in a certain radius around their body. The size of the radius and how detailed that information is, depends completely on the skills and strength of the witch or wizard. There is a possibility of being born with the ability to use Magesense since birth, although it is most rare. It is not believed to be hereditary in any way as there are no official records as such a thing. Godric Gryffindor was a wizard believed to be a natural Magesens. A renowned swordsman to the point of even using his sword when fighting against other magical beings, he was able to sense, block and dodge all attacks thrown at him with just his sword due to his incredible grasp of Magesense. It was said that he could sense the slightest of pebbles moving at a radius of one hundred metres. None of his relatives has been a known natural Magesens._

Then it went on listing several experts of the art, Merlin (apparently the huge range he was capable of was as far as a radius of one kilometre), Morgana, Cassandra of Troy and the list went on. Those, they hastily read through just to make sure they didn't miss anything crucial. Finally, they reached the juicy parts again.

_As stated afore, Magesense is the ability to sense your surroundings through your magic. For this, one needs to connect with the magic and receive the information of one's surroundings from it. Known Magesens have described it as 'seeing without looking and feeling without touching'. How to become a Magesens and train it is different for everybody. Most Magesens, however has agreed on one method, much like when practicing Occlumency, meditation. There are split opinions whether it is most effective to do this with clothes or without as well as whether to be outside, inside, extremely cold, extremely hot or just lukewarm. However, essentially it all comes down to attempting to focus on the magic around you and try to interpret the information it is sending you whilst ignoring the information your other five senses are sending you as this will be too much information for your brain and mind to interpret. Once you have reached this stage, subsequently add one sense at a time to accustom your brain and mind to the increase of information. A Master Magesens will not only be able to cover a large radius as well as receive and interpret detailed information of the landscape in that area, but will be able to constantly and subconsciously keep their Magesense active, much like a master Occlumens would keep their mental shields up subconsciously. _

Harry and Archie shared a look. This might be the most incredible thing they would ever learn by themselves. Bringing the book with them, they ventured into the nearest empty classroom to begin their training.

.

Harry strained to feel anything. He had done so for hours. Much like the ride on the Hogwarts train, however, nothing happened. He was sitting on one of the tables in an empty classroom with Archie on the one next to him. He could feel some heat emanating from Archie, although he was fairly sure that it was not thanks to him being able to use Magesense in any way. He took a deep breath and attempted to clear his mind once again.

.

CRASH

Harry's eyes jerked open, only to find Archie lying on the floor with the table he had been sitting on flipped over next to him. He was clutching his hand but all the same wearing a goofy grin.

"I felt something!" He exclaimed.

"Really?" Harry furrowed his eyebrows. He had felt nothing. He got up to look at Archie's hand. It had begun to swollen up quite a lot.

"Yeah!" Archie prattled on while standing up. "It was like I was floating in nothingness. I couldn't see, smell, taste, hear or even feel anything! Then, for a moment I could _feel _the table underneath me. Not feel it but _feel _it, you know what I mean?" Harry really had no idea what Archie meant but it sounded right and he couldn't help the goofy grin that crept its way onto his face as they started making their way to the infirmary. "I could feel the table with you on too and even you. I could _feel_ how your chest moved up and down with every breath. It was... it was amazing." Archie looked chattered on. "It was all so sudden that I lost my balance and fell, bringing the table with me." He looked a little sheepish after admitting that. "How'd it go for you." Archie suddenly asked and Harry's mood soured slightly as he was about to admit to being completely unsuccessful. He never got the time, however.

"What do you think you two are doing at this time of night!" Professor McGonagall's voice echoed through the corridor. Harry and Archie both shared a panicked look. They had completely forgotten the time! Harry turned to slip away. "Oh, no, you don't!" McGonagall warned him and before he could blink, he was bound and floating along the air towards McGonagall along with Archie.

"Uhm, Professor..."

"Be quiet, Potter!" McGonagall scolded him while muttering to herself. "Out of bed at this time of night, who knows what they were doing." And " Every Potter's the same thing." As well as "I can only imagine what trouble they have caused Hogwarts through the centuries."

As she approached Flitwick's office, she knocked harshly on the door.

Flitwick's office was not as small as one might have expected it to be, in fact, it was rather roomy with portraits of famous scholars ornamenting the walls and a bookshelf behind the desk, cutting the room in half. Harry, being the curious boy he is, had once sneaked behind the bookshelf to see what was beyond it only to almost fall onto a very much awake, previously sleeping, Flitwick. Harry had never received so many detentions before by Flitwick even if he added them all together. Harry's eyes fastened, however, on the desk where he knew Flitwick kept the most delicious cupcakes which he sometimes charmed to dance in an attempt to cheer up a sad student. When Harry had been in his first year, he had often visited Flitwick's office, usually on days when a lot of his classmates received mail from their parents although he never said why he was so sad.

"Minerva," Flitwick's voice piped from the side, causing them all to jerk their heads to where the Charms Professor was sitting in a comfortable armchair with a big book in his lap. He was wearing a pyjamas that wouldn't at all look out of place on Dumbledore and a rather dreamy looking night hat. He peered at them tiredly through his spectacles. "Ah, I see you've brought two of my students to me."

"Indeed I did." McGonagall agreed. "I apologize for the late intrusion but I already discovered that three of my Gryffindors, the younger Potter, Ms. Granger, Mr. Weasley and Draco Malfoy sneaking about as well. No doubt not understanding the severities of their actions. I found these close to the library and thought you ought to know." She glared sternly at Harry and Archie who had the audacity of looking down at their feet.

"Hmmm," Flitwick mimed lightly, taking in Archie's red and swollen hand, "what punishment did the first years receive?"

"50 points removed, each, and detention with Hagrid."

"Really?" Flitwick piped, surprised. "Do you think that wise, at this time with you-know-what?" Harry's ears perked up. You-know-what?

"I hardly think they will be in danger while with Hagrid." McGonagall eyed him piercingly through her spectacles but contrary to how most reacted under her stern gaze, Flitwick did not shrink away but sat instead calmly in his chair. "But might I suggest that Potter and Mimosa here join them?"

"Oh, a most excellent idea!" Flitwick jumped out of his seat, dropping the night hat on the floor. "And 70 points each removed from Ravenclaw! Oh, you can't expect me to be more lenient on you than two pairs of first years, can you?" He added at their dropped mouths. "Now, escort Mr. Mimosa to the hospital wing to fix that hand and head immediately to the dorms. I will know if you stray from your path." He dismissed them.

As Harry and Archie passed McGonagall, he noticed her disapproving eyes widen slightly at the sight of Archie's hand. So she hadn't noticed.

Once they were halfway to the hospital wing, Harry and Archie exchanged a glance.

"What do you think 'you-know-what' is?" Archie asked.

"No idea," Harry answered thoughtfully, "it might be what that three-headed dog on the third floor is guarding."

"What?"

"Oh, of course, you wouldn't know!" Harry slapped his head. "David told me during the holidays. Him and those two friends of his happened upon it when they were escaping from Filch." Archie gave him a weird look to which Harry shrugged. "He really talks a lot, that brat."

"You again!" Madam Pomfrey, surprisingly awake, huffed as they entered the hospital wing. "Can't even get the time to sleep properly with you in the castle!" She was nevertheless rather quick to examine Archie's hand and performed some spells upon it. "There, it should be fine after a good night's rest."

"What's he doing here?" Harry asked suddenly and motioned to his little brother's friend Ronald (?) Weasley sitting on a bed watching them.

"Nasty bite, refused to tell me from what, though. I believe he was with your brother..." Madam Pomfrey then seemed to catch herself. "Now, off to bed with you! If you had been in bed before curfew you probably wouldn't have even had to come here! Go! Out!"

Well, they couldn't really argue against that, and they hastily made their way out of the hospital wing to sleep in their warm soft beds. None of them looking forward to waking up tomorrow to find the school points, nor to Friday when they would serve their detention.

* * *

**AN:** There! Not very long but hope you enjoyed it anyway. For once, it isn't just character development but the story as well! You should probably recognize this from HP &amp; tPS. If not, then you need to reread the books and I don't know why you are reading HP fanficiton. XD

Next I will probably try to publish a chapter of HP &amp; tPoF before another of this one. Hopefully I'll be able to find the same spark there!

You are very welcome to review! All of them are very interesting. You know, I can't believe that I still get so excited and nervous from getting reviews but here I am, equally scared and equally excited to read whatever you write in your review.


	18. Chapter 18

**AN: **Finally! Here is a long-awaited chapter! There is also more coming although it is still just in my head! Anyway, enjoy!

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The next few days passed slowly with Archie and Harry for once being on the unpleasant end of the Ravenclaw stares. It was quite similar to how the Gryffindors were eying David and his friends. None of the houses had been too pleased with their fellow housemates. Now Gryffindor and Ravenclaw had both dropped to the bottom of the table for the House Cup. Well, Flitwick had never been one for being too fixed on materialistic things such as the House Cup. Still, even he might feel a little sad for breaking his three year streak. Never mind that, however, because tonight was the night for detention. Harry liked Hagrid but he had to admit that the man could be... unpredictable. Not to mention his sense of danger, or his lack of it.

"What do you think we'll be doing?" Archie asked as they made their way down to Hagrid's cottage. It was getting dark, quickly.

"No idea, but it must be bordering on dangerous." Harry answered sagely. He could see David and his friends standing outside the cottage.

"With Hagrid, it always is." Archie agreed with a whistle.

As they reached the cottage, the door opened and Hagrid stepped with a big lantern in his hand and his big hound trouncing after him.

"Good, yeh're all here." He boomed. "This here is Fang, my guard dog." He beckoned to the big hound. "Got yer wands with yeh? Good, yeh'll need 'em."

"Why would we need our wands?" The little Malfoy asked arrogantly. He seemed rather rude to Harry's ears, and slightly scared. Hagrid took a long look at the Malfoy brat before sighing.

"Dangerous things these woods." He answered simply.

"We're going into the Forbidden Forest?" Malfoy spluttered. "But it's... forbidden!"

"Should've thought 'bout that before yeh ventured out after curfew, shouldn't yeh!" Hagrid answered. "Now, we'll be splitting into two groups."

"I want the older Potter in my group!" Malfoy interrupted him making Harry roll his eyes. Anybody with half a brain would koew that Hagrid was the one most accustomed to these forests and therefore the safest. "And Fang!" Hagrid took a moment to answer.

"Fine." He said. "But yeh should know that he's a real coward when it comes down to it."

"Hagrid, what exactly will we be doing in the forest?" David asked carefully.

"Well, there've been reports of something killing unicorns an' supposedly there's one that's wounded. Our job's to find it." Hagrid said and looked directly at Harry who had gone completely still. It wasn't, could it be? Lux! "To kill a unicorn is a very wicked thing. Pure creatures, unicorns." Hagrid shook himself out of his reverie. "Now, if yeh're in any sort of danger or find the unicorn, shoot up red sparks. Yeah, jus' like that. Now 'bout those groups."

In the end, Harry went with David, Malfoy and Fang while Archie went with Hagrid, Ron and Hermione.

"Now, we'll go this way an' yeh'll go that way." Hagrid said and pointed Harry's team onto a forest path. "Remember, red sparks." He called back as he took his group into the forest.

Harry and his group started walking into the forest and quickly found that the path soon dwindled into a trail and that trail also began to die.

"Why'd they make us have detention with that big oaf?" Malfoy said haughtily.

"Shut up, Malfoy!" David hissed back. Harry couldn't help but smile, he was completely agreeing with his brother although he was too focused on finding the unicorn to bother involving himself. The Malfoy kid didn't seem to care though.

"Taking students into the Forbidden Forest! Wait till my father hears about this!" Harry was just about to roll his eyes when he stopped in his tracks. The small trail they had been following was gone. Silently, he went back to see if he had missed a turn but he couldn't find the trail anywhere. "What was that?" Malfoy squealed. Harry hadn't heard anything and judging by David's laughter, neither had he.

"If I didn't know you better, Malfoy, I'd say you were afraid." David jabbed.

"I-I'm not afraid Potter!" Malfoy defended vehemently. Harry was just about to tell the two of them to shut up but he was interrupted by David's shout.

"What's that over there?" David was pointing to a small meadow just beside them. There was a figure lying on the ground, in a silvery pool of blood. Harry immediately thought of Lux but something gave him the feeling that this was another unicorn, that Lux was safe. He inadvertently let out a sigh of relief before once again taking in the sight of the dead unicorn. He felt his heart clench as if a cold hand had reached into him and grabbed it. All the colour drained out his face and a cold wind swept right through him. He took a step towards the unicorn before jerking back at the sound of a twig snapping. They were not alone. On the other side of the unicorn, a hooded figure rose from the ground. It was crouching and therefore impossible to tell its face but it was undoubtedly the same thing that had attacked Lux. Readying himself for the mental attack, he glimpsed some silver blood dropping from the creatures hood. It had fed, recently.

"Come to try your luck again?" Harry said as he felt a sharp pain in his head. He forced himself to put on a grin and raised his wand. "That all you...

"WAAAH!" Two voices yelled simultaneously as David and Malfoy felt the mental attack. Harry twirled around to see Malfoy running away with Fang hot on his heels and David lying on the ground behind a thick root. Quickly, Harry turned back to the creature closing in on him.

"Glacius!" He screamed and a pale blue jet shot out of his wand. The creature, dodged it however and rolled to the side. This time, however, his target wasn't Harry, but David. It had used momentum from the dodge to get closer to David. "No, you don't!" Harry yelled. "Bombarda!" This time the spell hit its mark but instead of blowing its target away, it just ricocheted off the creature and into the woods. "David!" Harry yelled and rummaged through his head for a spell that would work against this thing. Harry felt his world enter into slow motion. He saw the creature inching closer to David who didn't even breathe from his paralysation. He sensed the leaves rustle from the tiniest of winds as well as the rasping breath of the dangerous creature as it lifted its hand, holding a wand towards David. He felt his own hand move as he raised his wand. It was painstakingly slow. He wouldn't make it in time. "Glacius tri..."

A loud yell mixed with a neigh interrupted him as a great figure leapt above David and kicked the creature away. It stopped up on its hind legs for another kick but the creature was already gone.

"Are you alright?" A deep and calm voice said from above. Harry had not even realized he was seated on the ground as reality jerked back into place. He was no longer moving in slow motion. He raised his hand and held it up for his eyes to see. It wouldn't stop shaking. "You are Harry Potter." The calm voice said, making Harry look up to see his rescuer. It was a dark man with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a horse. It was a centaur, to Harry's surprise. They were very secluded creatures and didn't like humans as far as he knew. "And you are David Potter." The centaur said in the direction of David's now heavily breathing body lying on the ground.

"How do you know our names?" Harry asked shakily.

"Mars is bright tonight." The centaur answered and glanced up to the star filled sky. Harry, looked up as well. He could name some stars and constellations from his astronomy class but not much more than that.

"Uhhmm, okay." Harry said, unsure of what to say.

"My name is Firenze." The centaur continued and suddenly focused his eyes onto Harry. "Can you ride? It will be quicker this way." He lowered himself and waited patiently for Harry to lift up and help David's shaking body onto the back of the centaur. Harry clambered on soon after, struggling to keep David safe on the spot as well as finding anything to make his own ride safer. He didn't think Firenze would appreciate if Harry grabbed onto his hair and asking for a bridle was even more out of the question!

There was suddenly a sound of more galloping from the other side of the clearing and two more centaurs came bursting through the trees, their flanks heaving and sweaty.

"Firenze!" One of them thundered. "What are you doing? You have humans on your back! Have you no shame? Are you a common mule?"

"Do you realize who these are, Bane?" Said Firenze. "These are the Potter boys. The quicker they leave this forest, the better."

"What have you been telling them?" Growled Bane. "Remember, Firenze, we are sworn not to set ourselves against the heavens. Have we not read what is to come in the movements of the planets?"

The second unknown centaur pawed the ground nervously. "I'm sure Firenze thought he was acting for the best," he said in a gloomy voice.

Bane kicked his back legs in anger. "For the best! What is that to do with us? Centaurs are concerned with what has been foretold! It is not our business to run around like donkeys after stray humans in our forest!"

Firenze suddenly reared on to his hind legs in anger, so that Harry had to struggle to grab the centaurs shoulders to keep him and David on. "Do you not see that unicorn?" Firenze bellowed at Bane. "Do you not understand why it was killed? Or have the planets not let you in on that secret? I set myself against what is lurking in this forest, Bane, yes, with humans alongside me if I must."

With that, Firenze whisked around and, with Harry clutching on as best he could, plunged off into the trees, leaving Bane and the other centaur behind them.

They soon reached Hagrid who was standing on alert with his crossbow up as they approached. The big man visibly relaxed when he saw them coming and stepped forward, revealing the Malfoy kid along with Fang behind him. Ron and Hermione were both hiding behind Archie who gave Harry a bored and meaningful look. Harry did notice, however, the tip of Archie's wand peeking out of his sleeve. The group was hurrying to reach Harry and David.

"David!" Hermione screamed as she looked up at Harry's brother who's shaking had now reduced to shivering.

"The unicorn is dead, Hagrid, it's in that clearing over there." Said Harry, hardly knowing what he was saying.

"This is where I leave you and your brother." Said Firenze and allowed Harry to climb down as Hagrid easily lifted David off the centaurs back. "You are safe now."

"Thank you." Harry said gratefully to the centaur who acknowledged him with a nod of his head.

"Good luck, Harry Potter. The planets have been read wrongly before now, even by centaurs. I hope this is one of those times." He said and glanced up to the sky before turning and cantering back into the depths of the forest, leaving Harry with a cold drop of sweat running down his spine. *

.

"Harry Potter, your brother is awake." McGonagall's voice rang through the corridor as Harry finally finished his Defence Against the Dark Arts OWL. About bloody time, he thought as he immediately changed his direction to head towards the hospital wing, the end of term feast would be in just a couple of days. He didn't notice McGonagall purse her lips in displeasure at him not even acknowledging her in his haste.

Stepping into the Hospital Wing, he was met by both his parents, Hermione, Ron and Dumbledore surrounding the bed David was lying in. For some reason, Harry took extra notice of the scar upon David's forehead. Was it standing out more?

"Hello, son!" James greeted him brightly as Lily flung herself into Harry's arms.

"We are so proud of you!" She sobbed loudly into his ear, making Harry cringe. They had visited once before when they heard David got hospitalized a couple of weeks earlier but their reaction hadn't been quite as strong then. Lily, noticing Harry didn't hug back, took a few quick steps and smoothened the front of her robes before clearing her throat. "Well, hmm-hmm, we kind of heard the whole story from David. How you followed him and his friends and helped them through all of the obstacles and even facing off against Voldemort!"

"You told them all that, huh?" Said Harry to David who had turned a bright red colour.

Harry was on his way outside to enjoy the beautiful day and to get in some practice, maybe even go for a swim if he felt like it. Archie was already outside with Viola, no doubt snogging their breaths away. Suddenly he heard familiar voices around the bend that made him sharpen his ears.

"It's tonight. Snape's going through the trapdoor to steal the stone for Voldemort tonight. He's got all he needs and Dumbledore's on his way to the Ministry of Magic." David's voice carried around the bend. Harry could only assume the collective gasps belonged to Ron and Hermione.

"But how could we..." Hermione began before coming to an abrupt stop.

"Good afternoon," Snape's smooth voice reached Harry's ears as he stopped breathing. "You shouldn't be inside on a day like this."

"We were..." Ron began.

"You want to be more careful. Hanging around indoor like this, people will think you are up to something. And Gryffindor really wouldn't do well to lose any more points now, would it?" Snape said and then his footsteps started echoing as he walked away.

"Right," said David after a short silence. "We need to get to the stone before Snape."

"What?" Hermione and Ron echoed together. Harry heard them getting closer and he quickly fumbled in his bag for the invisibility cloak, just managing to put it on before the trio came into full view of him. He performed a silent silencing charm onto himself and proceeded to shadow and eavesdrop on his brother's conversation.

"We can't let Voldemort have it, now can we?" David hissed at them. "Look, we'll do it tonight, just after curfew."

Harry kept listening as David, Hermione and Ron planned their excursion at night. He couldn't help but be slightly impressed that they had found out all of this information about the philosophers stone and its whereabouts although he had his doubts of where they believed Snape was involved. After hearing their plan, he thought that he definitely would follow them.

So it was that after curfew, Harry ventured out to the forbidden corridor on the third floor under the invisibility cloak. He got there just in time to see Hermione and Ron jump down through a trapdoor right next to a giant, and thankfully sleeping, three headed dog (what is that doing in a school full of children!) as David blew awful notes on a wooden flute. David as well, seemed to gather courage to jump and once he had finally done so, shouting all the way down, Harry walked up to the trapdoor. He peered over the edge only to see complete darkness. There was no telling how deep that fall was!

He heard some sniffing and looked up. The three headed giant dog was no longer sleeping! It's three heads were staring at the open trapdoor and sniffing wildly. Was the music what kept it asleep? Well, for Harry, the more urgent question was whether the dog could actually smell him. One of its heads began to growl and slowly moved closer to him while displaying teeth able to completely split him in two. Harry slowly backed from the head only to be pushed from behind by something else. Just as he turned around to see a giant eye darting around to find what it's head had come into contact with, Harry found that he had lost his footing and was rapidly falling. He was still falling and it wasn't getting any slower. A light shone from the bottom, showing him that he had some time before impact. He fumbled through his cloak before finally bringing out his shrunken broom. A tap of his wand, had the broom back to its original size and he quickly clambered onto it, breaking the fall. Just in time as well! A few more paces and he would have hit the ground. Looking down, he could see David, Hermione and Ron standing on the floor, checking themselves for bruises.

"Lucky Hermione reads a lot." David said to Ron who looked slightly abashed. In a corner, Harry could see a plant shrivelled up on itself as if hiding, Devils Snare, he thought it was.

"Harry?" David asked, making Harry almost fall off his broom. He looked down and saw the invisibility cloak lying on the floor beneath him.

"Shit!" Harry said as that was how he ended up aiding the three Gryffindors. He felt somehow responsible for keeping these three kids out of harm and not doing so wouldn't sit well with his conscience.

He followed them through several challenging chambers containing flying keys - catching the right key was almost too easy so Harry let David handle it -, an already knocked out mountain troll -_thank Merlin!_ -, a giant chessboard - that Weasley boy wasn't completely useless after all - and lastly through a room with several bottles containing different potions and poisons reeking far too much of Snape. Hermione had refused to just accept Harry's solution without making the same one herself and Harry had to admit, although his Ravenclaw pride wouldn't allow him to show it, that she was quite quick in her solution to the riddle. It had ended with one bottle sending Ron and Hermione to safety and another containing just enough for Harry and David to go onwards through the black flames blocking the doorway.

"I should go alone." Harry said, with a sense of finality in his voice. "There is still enough potion in the bottle that Granger and Weasley drank from. You should get back to... fuck!"

David had in one fell swoop, upended the bottle and drunk half its contents, thrown it to Harry who barely managed to catch it in his surprise and then David had sprinted through the black flames to the next chamber.

Harry stood frozen for a few seconds before he heard a scream echoing through from the next chamber.

_David!_

He downed what was left of the vial and felt as if ice was flooding his body. He quickly sprinted through the black flames, closing his eyes as he made his way through them. Obviously, the potion was working as he felt nothing from the flames but when he opened his eyes again, he found something, or more accurately, someone he did not expect.

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**AN:** So close to the end of year 1 now! There will be a lot happening in the next few chapters so stay with me! I just hope I will be able to write it all fairly quickly! Why do I always have a full schedule when my writing spark returns to me?

**Some parts of the forbidden forests scene is taken from and/or just slightly edited from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.


	19. Chapter 19

**AN:** There we go! A new chapter to this story finally! I'm currently in Australia backpacking and it's very hard for me to update but here you go! Might take quite some time for the next update!

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"Professor?"

Harry couldn't help but goggle in disbelief. He was in a circular room with steps leading down to the middle where none other than Professor Quirrel. Stuttering and stammering Professor Quirrel.

"Harry Potter," Quirrel turned away from a David bound in ropes a few yards off. "The two Potter brothers, here to stop me. One paraded in the spotlight and one always struggling to make it out of the others shadow. Funny how you both are so similar yet so different."

Speechless, Harry brought up his wand. Quirrell looked as if he would laugh. "Stupefy! Glacius! Bombarda!" Harry kept hurling spell after spell but nothing worked. Quirrell easily deflected them all. It was very similar to something Harry had experienced just weeks before.

"You recognize this, Potter?" Quirrell shouted mockingly as he deflected another spell. "It's frustrating when the spells you hit have no effect, isn't it? My master taught it to me, among other things."

"You!" Harry seethed. "It was you in the forest!" _You were the one killing unicorns. You tried to kill Lux!_

"As always," Quirrell smiled, "you're a fast thinker."Harry kept hurling any and every spell he could think of, each being dodged or deflected by Quirrell. "Who would suspect p-p-p-p-poor st-t-t-t-ut-ttering Quirrell next to someone like Proffessor Snape like your brother here so conveniently suspected."

"_Stop playing around!" _A different cold and shrill voice hissed loudly, making Harry look around for the owner, a mistake he would regret because just as soon as he did, he found himself falling, dropping his wand and being bound by ropes. _"Find the stone!"_ The voice ordered. Stone? What stone?

"I am trying, master! But I don't know how!" Quirrell had now turned away from Harry to a tall mirror. "The last challenge, trust Dumbledore to come up with something like this... but he is in London.. I'll be far away by the time he gets back." He took a short pause and stared more intently into the mirror. "I can see myself, holding the stone, presenting it to my master. But where is it?" Quirrell said irritated.

"It's the philosopher's stone! He wants the stone for Voldemort!" David shouted to Harry.

"SILENCE! How dare you utter my master's name?" Quirrell bellowed and cast a silencing charm on David. Anything else he could say to help Harry would probably be useless but maybe it already was enough. Harry could almost feel time slowing down as the cogs in his mind began to turn. The Philosopher's stone made by Nicholas Flamel truly was in the school just as David and his friends had said! That's what all those traps and challenges in the chambers before must have been guarding. But why would it be here at Hogwarts? Never mind that, it wasn't important at the moment. Quirrell was getting it for his master, which was Voldemort. Then that shrill voice must be Voldemort. Where was he speaking from and how did he get into the school? And that mirror was supposed to be hiding the stone? That meant Harry had to somehow get to that mirror and get the stone before Quirrell and eventually Voldemort did. But then what? How would he be able to get himself and David out of there with their lives and the stone? His time was running out, however, as the voice spoke again.

"_Use the boy!"_

"Which one, master?" Quirrell asked desperately as he turned to face them.

"_It doesn't matter."_

"Come here, Potter!" Quirrell shouted and pointed his wand at Harry. Harry felt himself being propelled forwards and skid to a halt in front of the mirror. Now, Harry could see words at the top of the mirror. _Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi._ What could that mean? Focusing instead on the reflection in the mirror, Harry almost took a step back.

He saw himself, but not as he looked now with the ropes and the bruise he felt that he must have on his cheek from his fall. He didn't even see himself at the same age as he was. Instead he saw himself at the age of four, sitting on the stairs looking sad as his family was about to take a picture, but instead of ignoring him and taking the picture, his father walked up to him and lifted him up and carried him, giggling, to the picture where his whole family hugged him dearly. He then saw a slightly older version of himself, walking up hungrily and carefully to his mother with an empty plate. It was obvious that he wanted food. Instead of scolding him and sending him away, however, his mother looked around mischievously and reached into a locker in the kitchen and took out some homemade cookies, laughing at the joy evident on Harry's face. He saw himself quickly aging while playing with his little brother and sister, going along on picnics with his whole family, celebrating Christmas and birthdays together, the proud faces of his parents and the jealous face of his little brother as he got his wand at Ollivander's. In the mirror, Harry relived all his most horrible memories as they should have been, as he wished they had been, with a family that truly cared for him until he was his current age. A tiny tear streaked down his cheek. It felt as if he had been standing there for hours.

"What do you see, Potter?" Quirrell spat and Harry was jerked back into reality. He couldn't have been standing there for more than a moment. _Right, the stone!_ Suddenly Harry no longer saw himself with his family. He saw himself looking tattered with ropes binding his arms to his body. He saw his reflection carefully tap his robe pocket where there was a slight bulge with its fingers and the real Harry felt something drop down into his pocket. The stone? He had it? Just like that? "Potter?" Quirrell sounded impatient. Quick, think of something!

"Right." Harry began. "Uhm... I see myself. I'm flying! On a broom." Harry hurried to add. "I'm captain of the Quidditch team... I'm holding the Quidditch cup! We've just won." Harry added lamely. That was the best he could think of?

Quirrell swore loudly and Harry backed away. "Move aside boy! I'll bring your brother here instead!"

"_He's lying!"_ The shrill voice interrupted before Quirrell could summon David.

"Potter!" Quirrell yelled and Harry took another step back, taking in the situation. David was on the other side of Quirrell, close to the exit and struggling to stand up. He was still under the silencing charm. Maybe Harry could somehow throw the stone to him and he could run to a teacher? No, he would never be able to escape Quirrell. Harry had to think of something else.

"_Let me meet him." _The voice ordered.

"But master," Quirrell argued weakly. "You're not strong enough."

"_I am for this."_

Obediently, and to Harry's great confusion, Quirrell began to unwrap the turban covering his head. He then very slowly turned around and showed Harry the back of his head. Harry released a noise of surprise and tried to look away but he couldn't. Where there should have been a back to Quirrell's head, there was a face. The ugliest and most twisted face Harry had ever seen. It was chalk white with glaring red eyes and slits for nostrils, like a snake. Harry could impossibly mistake those eyes. They were the very same ones that belonged to the man who had attempted to overtake his head. Voldemort's eyes.

"_The Potter brothers."_ The face said.

"Voldemort." Harry managed to grit through clenched teeth and the red snake eyes narrowed. He could feel the assault on his mind building up.

"_So you recognize me?"_ Voldemort sounded suspicious. _"See what I have become? Mere shadow of what I once was. _

"You got what you deserved." Harry forced himself to shrug. "You are evil." To Harry's surprise, the twisted face laughed.

"_There is no evil. Only power and those too weak to seek it! Now, give me the stone!"_

"No!" Harry shouted in defiance, enraging the face.

"_Quirrell!"_ Voldemort shouted in command. At that Quirrell turned and began walking towards him, hands outstretched.

"No!" Before Quirrell could reach Harry, something small yelled and jumped onto Quirrell's back, making Quirrell drop his wand. David had somehow gotten free of the ropes binding him and was trying to keep Quirrell off Harry. He was yelling frantically and grabbing at Quirrell arms to keep him constrained, something which he was extremely incapable of with his small build. Recovering from the initial shock of being jumped by the small boy, Quirrell grabbed one of David's hands to wrench it away and flinched away, releasing a yelp of surprise. The startling motion made David fall off the professor.

"_What are you doing?"_ Voldemort snarled. _"Get the stone!"_

"What is happening to me?" Quirrell asked in panic while looking down at his hands. Harry did so too and saw that one of Quirrell's hands, the one he had used to grab David's hand, looked strangely charred and dry. David had also seen it and was looking down at his own hands. He made a split second decision and began running once again towards Quirrell, hands ready to grab at the man. Quirrell reached for his wand on the ground with his other hand and Harry too had to think fast. He took a leap and head butted his old professor on the downside of the man's jaw. Quirrell stumbled back, giving David the opportunity to grab the Quirrell's face.

"AAAAAHHH" Quirrell gave an agonizing scream as he desperately struggled to get away from David's hands. After a few seconds of struggling he managed to push David off once more but it was too late. Quirrell stood only for another moment, the charred dry and cracked look of his face sending chills down Harry's spine as it spread down his neck. When the professor hit the floor, there was only a pile of dust and the man's robes. It was still not done, however. Seeping out of the old professor's dust was a misty substance. Harry and David stared in horror as it formed above the ground into the face that had painted the back of Quirrell's head. Voldemort.

"_NOOOOOO!" _It shouted and began to fly around and passed through David who gave a terrified shout and slumped to the floor. Next it came for Harry who tried to move out of the way but he was still bound and wasn't fast enough. A cold chill swept through him along with the wraith-like thing that was Voldemort and he too fell to the ground. Just before his mind slipped into unconsciousness, he thought that he glimpsed a pair of clear blue eyes behind half-moon spectacles.

.

Harry awoke within the infirmary the next day. David was sleeping on the bed next to him and Dumbledore himself was sitting on a chair between them, peering intently at a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans that was addressed to Harry. A small smile fixed his face as he noticed Harry's woken state.

"Aah, I thought you might come to before your brother did." He said and put the sweets down. "Now, I assume you might have some questions?" He asked expectantly and grew quiet. Harry took some time to organize his thoughts.

"Why couldn't Quirrell touch David? Is it because of our protection when we first vanquished Voldemort? Does the same protection still apply to me after I had that struggle with the Voldemort shard inside of me? Does Voldemort know that I also am a Bow-Who-Lived? How did you know where to find me?" Harry paused and gave Dumbledore room to respond. The old man looked at him peculiarly and then chuckled slightly.

"Once again, I am surprised at how different yet somehow similar you and your brother are."

"Quirrell sort of said the same thing." Harry said and glanced over to his brother. He was facing upwards, the lightning scar on his forehead almost blazing in the reflection of the sun outside.

"As to answer your questions, it seems that you have already reached the same conclusions that I have. I do believe it was due to the same protection that saved you that night many years ago that rendered it impossible for something possessed by something as incapable of love as Voldemort to touch David directly. If the protection still applies to you? I would say so but alas, even I have no way to prove it. I didn't know where to find you. I was on my to the ministry when I suddenly realized that where I was needed the most was currently at Hogwarts, so I returned and just in time if I may say so myself."

Harry let Dumbledore's words sink in for a few moments.

"The mirror!" He blurted out suddenly and Dumbledore's eyes began to twinkle with something akin to amusement.

"Aahh, the mirror of Erised. _Stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi_. Many have seen it and it has been known to drive men mad. In fact, your brother ran the risk of getting stuck before it earlier this year." Dumbledore paused. "Can you see it?" He asked expectantly and Harry focused his tired mind. The mirror had shown him his life with a family that cared for him. As it would have, should have been. At least according to him. Then he had focused on the stone. He had wanted the stone so that Voldemort didn't get it. He lit up as he realized it.

"_Stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi._ I show not your face but your heart's desire." He said thoughtfully. "But Voldemort also wanted the stone! Why did I get it and not Quirrell?"

"Indeed!" Dumbledore beamed. "But Only someone that wanted the stone but didn't want to use it could get the stone from the mirror. One of my more brilliant ideas and between you and me, that is saying something." Harry couldn't help himself. He smiled at the old headmaster, something that made the old man grin back. "Now then, I do think it is time for you to rest, or Poppy will have my head. I also believe that you have your OWLs to prepare for, assuming that you still wish to do them?" Dumbledore added as an afterthought and chuckled when Harry eagerly nodded his head. He wouldn't miss this chance to jump a year for anything in the world. Dumbledore made as to go before stopping and glancing once more at the box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans unopened next to Harry's bed. "Perhaps, maybe, would it be alright if I tried my luck with one of those? I was unfortunate enough in my youth to eat a vomit-flavoured one and since then I'm afraid I've lost my liking for them." Harry motioned for him to go ahead and the old man smoothly opened the box and picked out a yellow bean. "I think I could be safe with a nice toffee?" He plopped it into his mouth and put on a pensive expression. "Mmm, Alas!" He said cheerfully. "Earwax." With that, the headmaster made his way out of the infirmary, leaving Harry to shake his head in amusement.

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**AN:** Finally we're getting somewhere close to where I have prepared some things for this story! Hope you liked it!


	20. Chapter 20

**AN: **There you go! 70 days later, a new chapter comes out. An early Christmas gift! Happy Holidays everybody! If anyone is wondering or cares, I am having a great time in Australia! Going to Sydney soon and will hopefull find a job there. If you don't care, well, you're not here for the Author's Note anyway, enjoy the chapter!

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"We have done some research." Lily began.

"A lot of research." James interjected and held his hands up innocently when Lily gave him a piercing and slightly irritated look. "What? We have barely done anything else between working and taking care of Daisy!"

They were in Dumbledore's office, Dumbledore behind his desk, with Lily and James seated comfortably in a couch and Harry standing. He had been pacing around and just finished recounting his experience with finding the philosophers stone and facing Voldemort when Lily began to talk. He was now standing rather awkwardly, not sure where to go. There was room for a third person on Lily and James' couch but he would not feel comfortable sitting there. He chose to stay where he was, standing. It somehow gave him a sense of advantage. Dumbledore was looking at him expectantly, did he know what Harry's parents were talking about?

"Okay?" Harry said, not enduring the pregnant pause any longer. "What kind of research?" James and Lily opened their mouths to speak but then both hesitated. They looked at each other, somehow communicating before Lily finally spoke.

"We have researched our," She gulped, "actions and the reasons for them since approximately ten years ago." She paused and looked down at her feet. James had grabbed her hand in his and was looking hopefully at Harry. Dumbledore was seated behind his desk with his hands clasped, a calm and peaceful expression donning his face. Harry drew from the safety of that peace and schooled his own expression. He felt a tiny shiver run down his back. What did they mean reasons for their actions? Were they looking for excuses? He felt his hands begin to slightly shake and a heat was rising trough his neck.

"When we dropped David off at King's Cross on his first day of Hogwarts I met Sirius." The words were tumbling out of James in a terrible rush. "He told us that he had dropped you off there and was very mad and I couldn't understand what was the matter with him!" He was now gesturing wildly with his arms. "Then Daisy told us that you had been home all summer and that she had given you a birthday present. We felt so very confused and like, somehow, something was missing..." His voice broke off. Harry could feel the heat spreading up his face, reaching up to his ears. Was this leading to where he thought it was. They wouldn't dare! Not now! He tried to calm himself. Happy thoughts. Happy thoughts. He glanced at Dumbledore. The old man was still seated comfortably and had yet to make sound or reaction to anything they had said. So he knew about it and what's more, going by his expression he might even see some credibility with what Harry's parents were getting at.

"I searched through all the old albums until I finally found this one." Lily said and held out an old photo album. Harry snatched it off her and tucked it under his wand arm. He did not need to open it. He knew exactly what it contained. It was the recordings of how Harry had been slowly more and more shunned until he was all but completely neglected. He had spent more than enough hours mulling over this very album with tears in his eyes, asking why, until Sirius had hidden it from him.

"It hit us like a backlash." James continued. "What we had done over the course of ten years just washed over us!"

"So after weeks of writing and rewriting, we sent you that first letter..." Lily whispered in a small voice.

Harry felt like he was going to explode. A Confundus charm? A CONFUNDUS CHARM! How could they? How dare they? He opened his mouth to begin his tirade but was stopped by an old and wrinkled hand on his shoulders. Dumbledore had, without Harry noticing, gone up to stand next to Harry. He still wore that calm and peaceful expression, albeit slightly more somber.

"Harry, come have a seat." He said in a calm and collected manner but with a hint of steel and power. Suddenly he seemed like a very large man and Harry felt like a very little boy in comparison. Dumbledore radiated control and power. The strongest wizard of his generation. Chief Warlock. Supreme Mugwump. Leader of the Light. There was no disobeying that voice. Slowly, carefully, Dumbledore led Harry behind the Headmaster's desk and to sit in the big and lavish chair that belonged to the Headmaster. He kept his hand on Harry's shoulder even after Harry had sat down and Harry was rather thankful for it. Harry took a few deep breaths and looked out over the oval office. He remembered the last time he was in this chair. Then he had been in control. Now, he had to be in control once again. James and Lily seemed slightly smaller from his new viewpoint. He could draw comfort from that. He once again prepared to speak, but no outburst this time.

"Do you mean that all the neglect, all the pain and suffering you have caused to me, were because of a Confundus charm?" There was poison in his voice and Harry knew it.

"Of course we in no way mean to excuse our behaviour with this!" James exclaimed and made to stand up.

"Then what exactly is the point of bringing this up?" Harry retorted quickly and James shrank back into the couch, becoming small once again.

"We have made extensive research into this and a lot of what we've found point towards this conclusion." Lily said slowly. "For example, how it seemed that we didn't realize what we were doing. How, when we did realize, the spell seemed to break and the backlash hit us with tremendous force. The fact that we did not neglect Daisy in preference of David. How, I know that I love you and always have, underneath all the cruelties and mistakes I've made." There were tears in Lily's eyes. Harry did not really know what to say. On one hand, he thought she deserved all the pain she felt, he even enjoyed it and was slowly speculating on how to increase it. On the other hand, it pained him to see her this way and he wanted nothing more than to comfort her as he knew she would have done to David or Daisy.

" I feel the same way." James intoned steadily. "And we believed that you had the right to know where our research has led us." Harry was about to interject but James continued. "However, we cannot be sure that a Confundus charm is the cause of our behaviour. There are still too many unanswered questions. First and foremost, we must know how this has affected you, Harry. We can understand and even accept that you may hate us. How even the sight of us brings you pain and suffering. How it conflicts with your love for Daisy and I suspect even for David from what I've heard and seen of your interactions. We can also understand how our sudden change in behaviour may also may cause you great confusion and a new set of conflict within yourself." He stopped and there was quiet in the room for a while as Harry let everything they had just said sink in.

He tried not to let his feelings show as his mind was working at an incredible speed. It would be so easy to just lay the blame on a Confundus charm. To go back to being a happy family. He could almost see himself forgiving them just like that and join them for the summer. Eat dinner with them. Celebrate his birthday with his whole family for the first time in ten years. At the same time, he hated them for looking for excuses. It was so petty of them and Harry could see that it was an even easier way out for them than it was for him. Still, if what they said was true about how they suddenly had their change of heart was true, then it sure did seem like something was slightly off to say the least. And they couldn't confirm it being a Confundus charm with just their side either. They also needed to know how it had affected Harry. If there wasn't any sign of it in Harry, then their research would fall apart. And if there was? Then it would confirm their research. They would all truly be able to blame the charm. If that were the case, would Harry be willing to admit it to them? Would Harry be able to see past the neglect and suffering of ten years? If it was a Confundus charm and he managed to break it, that might even automatically give him the chance to do so. That would mean that the animosity and hate he has felt between him and his parents weren't real emotions, wouldn't it? But even if the emotions weren't real, the actions still were. He shook his head and looked up at Dumbledore. The old man's eyes were twinkling madly and he wore a small and tight smile. Was he using Legilimency on Harry? Had he bypassed Harry's walls? Could he do so without Harry noticing? Harry wasn't sure. He returned to his musing. There remained a few more questions apart from how this would affect him and his relationship with his parents. How, when, why and who. He looked down on his parents, making sure his face didn't betray a single emotion.

"Let's say this, _situation_," he gestured vaguely with his hands, "was caused by a Confundus charm. Then who did it, why did they do it, when did they do it and how did they do it? Bloody hell, who is even strong enough to perform such a spell?"

"_If_ it is indeed true that there might be magic involved in your mistreatment," Dumbledore said calmly from next to Harry, "I believe we can approximate the when of it to the moment of Voldemort's defeat or shortly thereafter. As for your other questions, I have some theories but none of them matter unless there truly is such a magic in play."

"Did Voldemort do it?" Harry asked the old man and received a serious look in return. It would be the most obvious and logical suspect, disregarding how the Dark Lord would be able to cast such a powerful and complicated Confundus charm without even Harry's parents present at the moment of his defeat.

"He would certainly be strong enough." Dumbledore said after a moment's thought. And so would you, Harry thought. He didn't say it out loud, though. Knowing Dumbledore, straight answers were very rare, he might even have another culprit in mind that Harry hadn't even thought about. Harry returned his attention to his parents.

"Well?" He demanded. They looked unsure and Harry hid a little smile. They must have been expecting an outburst, or at least they had not expected the reaction they got.

"Well, what we need you to do, to confirm or deny our research, is to somehow find out whether or not you show the symptoms of a Confundus charm." Lily said. "We would suggest going to a Mind Healer..."

"Nope." Harry answered.

"What?" Lily and James asked in unison. They had obviously not expected trouble at this point, not when they had gotten this far. Harry had even listened to them and was seemingly seriously considering what they had said. No, they had expected resistance a lot earlier. They had probably not expected him to even hear them out and that he did had made them bold.

"Then how do you expect to find out if our research has led us to the right conclusion or not?" James asked and Harry had to admit that to their credit, they had not completely given in to the temptation of excusing their behaviour with a Confundus charm.

"I don't know." Harry answered nonchalantly. "I don't even know that I will see if I have been the victim of a Confundus charm. It does seem like an awfully convenient explanation, doesn't it?" They had the decency to blush. Good. "I do know, though, that I will not see a Mind Healer and that's final. Now, I would like for you to leave." He dismissed them, although he knew that it was not his place to do so. Dumbledore, however, didn't say anything and Harry fought the urge to look at the old man.

"But, Harry!" Lily exclaimed and Harry clenched his teeth.

"I will give you the answer of my decision when I am ready and willing to do so. Until then, our previous arrangement stands." Lily looked like she wanted to protest but James put a soothing hand on Lily's arm. He nodded towards Harry.

"For Daisy." He said and stood up as if to go. "Come on Lils. For now, it's best if we leave."

Harry watched them go with a serious expression. Lily glanced back several times, clearly wanting to stay for a while longer but James stoically kept his gaze forward.

As soon as the door shut behind them, Harry put his forehead on the desk. He didn't know whether he should laugh, cry, or scream, so he did all three.

.

When Harry woke up, the first thing he noticed was that he had a slight headache. The second thing he noticed was that he wasn't in his bed. He wasn't in a bed in the Hospital Wing either. In fact, he wasn't in a bed at all. It took him a few extra seconds to realize that he was still in the Headmasters office. He was lying on the very couch that his parents had been sitting on only... how long ago? Harry felt clear eyes watching him. Dumbledore was seated on his stool behind his desk, a document held in both hands in front of him. His moon shaped spectacles had slipped down his nose and he was bending his head slightly backwards to properly see Harry. Harry then remembered the events that had transpired before. How he had broken down on Dumbledore's desk until sleep took him. The old wizard must then have relocated Harry to the sofa.

"Ahh, Harry," Dumbledore said. "Hot chocolate?" Dumbledore offered and gestured to a steaming cup of hot chocolate on his desk. Harry sat up and nodded and with a gesture from Dumbledore, the steaming cup was flowing gently through the air towards Harry. "I always find it refreshing with a cup of hot chocolate after an emotionally draining day." Dumbledore smiled gently and went back to do his paperwork. He didn't say anything else and so Harry quietly sipped his hot chocolate and felt his headache slowly disappear in tact with Dumbledore's small stack of paperwork. Once finished, Harry let out a contented sigh and relaxed into the sofa as Dumbledore caught his eye with his own twinkling ones. "You might find it interesting that you were asleep for exactly three hours, eight minutes and two seconds." The old man said in a jovial tone before turning serious. "You and I have some serious business to deal with."

"Yes, sir." Harry answered, immediately alert.

"First of all, I'd like to know if you take your parent's research and theories seriously or not." Dumbledore said and Harry sighed once again, this time not so contently.

"How can I not?" He asked and Dumbledore gave a hint of a smile.

"Oh, Harry, I can see many reasons as to why you wouldn't, one of them standing out very clearly. Perhaps this is where your Ravenclaw side shows through, putting logic and reasoning before your feelings. And while their reasoning is sound, it is not foolproof." Dumbledore pondered.

"Do you think I shouldn't? Do _you_ think they're wrong?" Harry demanded and he almost felt a little hopeful.

"That, I cannot say. Not yet. All I know is that there is powerful magic in feelings. There might be some other reason as to how and why they felt as they did." Dumbledore took a moment to pop a lemon drop into his mouth. "You are perhaps familiar with the patronus charm?" Harry nodded. "The Unforgivables?" Harry, a bit startled, nodded again. "Yes, Harry, just like how the patronus charm is strengthened by a happy memory, the three Unforgivable curses are strengthened by negative emotions, as you may have presumed, mostly hate."

"I... see." Harry said as he took a moment to ponder this. It made sense. It also implied that although he and his parents might not have been subject to a Confundus Charm, magic itself might have imbued itself into Harry's and his parent's emotions throughout the years, nudging them slightly in the directions of creating the distance between them, thus resulting in the animosity felt between them. But that was next to unexplored area of magic that would be next to impossible to investigate, much less prove. Harry shook his head. "You might have a point, sir, and it might even be worth investigating _after_ we have confirmed whether a Confundus Charm has or has not been in place." Dumbledore gave Harry a pleased smile.

"Harry, you absolutely astound me. I cannot begin to fathom what a brilliant wizard you will become one day!" Harry blinked a few times at the praise and to make things even worse, he felt his cheeks heat up.

"Not as great a wizard as you, sir, surely." Harry mumbled and Dumbledore's eyes began twinkling playfully.

"Oh, I do believe that you will eclipse me many times over," Dumbledore began and smiled at Harry's raised eyebrows. "You are right though, in pure power, many if any aren't my match, but in heart, despite your many troubles or perhaps because of them, you, Harry Potter, are many times my match."

"I..." Harry didn't quite know what to say to that. Dumbledore chuckled slightly.

"Now that I have successfully rendered even your quick wit speechless, I believe it is time we see to the matter at hand. Let me be direct, do you know how Lily and James intended to see if you were affected by a Confundus Charm?" Dumbledore said and Harry shook his head.

"They wanted me to go to a Mind Healer. There is no way I'm willingly letting anyone see inside my head, what I've been through." Harry felt himself getting aggravated by just the thought.

"I understand." Dumbledore said soberly with a slightly pained expression that soon changed into something akin to hope and satisfaction. "However, that is not what I was referring to. Rather, the process of looking into your mind to find the missing links that would either prove, or disprove their research and what is only thus far, theory. Fortunately, and I don't doubt much to your own sense of security, with your skill at Occlumency, it will not be necessary for anyone else but you to perform the investigation." Harry nodded, not helping but feeling slightly smug and almost arrogant.

"So, what do I do exactly?" Harry asked. Mind magic was always a very interesting topic.

"Well, that is a rather interesting bit of magic!" Dumbledore said delightedly. "I received quite an interesting lecture from Poppy about the moral implications of subjecting someone to such a powerful and severe Confundus charm... I will spare you the unnecessary details," Dumbledore winked and Harry grinned. "Essentially, what you have to do is to look into your own mind and focus on your feelings. Apparently there is no such thing as an absolute perfect Confundus Charm and there will, without exception, exist evidence."

"So I look into my memories, focusing on my feelings to find...what?" Harry asked.

"Well, my boy." Dumbledore started. "What do you think would indicate a Confundus Charm?"

"Hmm..." Harry hummed. "Maybe if I could find some memory in the early stages after that night where I actually felt loved...?" Dumbledore smacked his lips.

"Ahh, to find a moment where the supposed Confundus Charm had somehow failed to manifest itself in its early stages. Definitely not a bad tactic. That would be a very obvious piece of evidence and make it a very simple case. It might, however, not be that obvious." Dumbledore continued. "For a Confundus Charm to work on you, a child wanting to be loved, it would have to be incredibly subtle to escape notice in its early stages. It could not simply have you cut off connections from your parents immediately and them with you. But if it indeed is there, it would have to show through in some ways."

"Such as what?" Harry mused. What Dumbledore was saying did make sense. If the change was too drastic and too fast, magic would be suspected as a reason.

"Signs of doubt, regret and unwillingness to perform certain actions that would further alienate yourself. Body and mouth moving without the complete consent of the mind." Dumbledore said. "Of course, these things may be very hard to find even if they are there, it will take an incredible amount of concentration and perhaps months to yield results since what you are looking for might not even exist."

Harry pondered that. If he wanted to, he could refuse to do it on the premise of it being just a way to excuse their behaviour. Doing that would surely not be helpful to their relationship. Did that mean he wanted to fix their relationship then? To transform it into what it should have been. The reason he ever spent time with them form the beginning was because of Daisy but it had still come so naturally that it surprised him. And it _had_ been strange how they had done a complete one-eighty in the beginning of the school year.

What would happen if he didn't find anything? It would hurt, knowing for sure that their actions towards him came completely from themselves and weren't affected by some outer force. Receiving that ultimate truth, he would probably completely cut off ties with them. Leave the house, move in with Sirius, maybe even take legal action against them. He could not see himself ever speak a civil word to them if that were the case. It would hurt, to leave Daisy, and even David, but it was a pain he could take. A pain he was used to.

On the other hand what would happen if he did find it, if this Confundus Charm truly was in place. It would mean that more than half of his life had been a lie. Could he really accept that? Could he disregard ten years of neglect just like that? A voice spoke from deep inside of him. _A part of you do want to know them better. A part of you still want their love. And if there is a Confundus Charm, isn't that your true feelings?_

Harry nodded to himself. He had made his decision. If the Confundus Charm existed or not, he would find the answer. He couldn't leave it in suspense like this, not knowing the truth of it. For Daisy. For David. Maybe even for his parents.

And most importantly.

For himself.

* * *

**AN:** Nice! I rather liked this chapter. We're getting closer to finally getting some answers, despite my slow updating.

Now, what would you prefer? The existence or nonexistence of a Confundus Charm? Your answers may or may not influence the outcome.

Hope you liked it and you are very welcome to review as I usually ask. There is no telling when the next chapter will come out. Toodiloo


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